Vietnam urged to learn from Philippines in redeveloping Russian base
HANOI - Vietnam should learn from the Philippine experience of
converting
former US bases to civilian economic use as it plans the future of a
strategic Russian air and naval base on its central coast, an official
newspaper said Tuesday.
"The Philippine experience of converting Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark
Air
Base into special economic zones drawing in foreign investment after the
US
ended decades of military use in 1992 merits study by Vietnam," the Dai
Doan
Ket (Great Unity) newspaper said.
The paper acknowledged that the future of the Cam Ranh Bay base after
Moscow
surrenders its lease later this year remains a "highly sensitive topic"
for
Vietnam's communist authorities.
But it revealed that as long as 10 years ago the government's own
experts
had urged consideration of the base's conversion to civilian use for the
benefit of the impoverished communist state's economy.
In 1993, a group of generals and academics based in Ho Chi Minh City had
written to the all-powerful politburo of the ruling communist party to
"advise" the opening of negotiations with Moscow on the conversion of
the
base to civilian use a full 11 years before the expiry of the Russian
lease,
the paper also revealed.
The base's conversion into an international port was a matter of
"strategic
importance for the economic development of Vietnam," the paper quoted
the
letter as saying.
Vietnamese Defence Minister Phan Van Tra has said that there may be
economic
use of Cam Ran Bay's natural deep water port and two 4,000 metre (13,000
foot) runways after Russia pulls out in July, but only under the
military's
auspices.
Cam Ranh Bay will be "reserved for military use, combined to a certain
extent with economic development," he told the Toi Bao Khin Te Saigon
weekly
last month.
Viewed as one of the best natural harbours in the the Far East, the Cam
Ranh
Bay base was originally built by the United States during the Vietnam
War,
but was leased to the Soviet Union in 1979 following the end of the war
in
1975.
Earlier this year, a cash-strapped Moscow announced it intended to make
an
early surrender of its 25-year lease as it could no longer afford the
base.
Agence France Presse - April 2, 2002
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