Swedes probe corruption in Vietnam
Vietnam's rulers have decided that the nation's corruption problems are
too
enormous to tackle on their own. In an unusual move, the Communist Party
has
turned to the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency to
carry
out a $700,000, three-year study on corruption--both within the party
and
the civil service.
According to Swedish diplomats, party officials made it clear that they
only
trust the Swedish government to handle this delicate task, building on a
cooperative relationship dating back to 1969. Nonetheless, it won't be
possible to hush up the results, since Swedish law mandates public
access to
government-funded project documents. "The outcome of this must be open
to
everyone," maintains one Swedish diplomat. It remains unclear exactly
how
the study will be conducted, though it's slated to begin by the end of
this
year.
The Far Eastern Economic Review - July 18, 2002.
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