Vietnam official visits Bay Area
Vietnam is looking for help from Silicon Valley to build a flagship university focused on high-tech training and business management, part of its strategy to bolster its high-tech industries, a visiting high-ranking Vietnamese official said Saturday.
Ton Nu thi Ninh, who is charged with improving relations between the communist country and the United States, wants Vietnamese-Americans and other Vietnamese expatriates with expertise to teach at the future university, she told two small gatherings in Silicon Valley.
The blueprint for the university would make it unique. It would be autonomous, taking little direction from the government ministry that oversees education. ``Some of the hottest issues of debate within the National Assembly are on education,'' she said, referring to Vietnam's ruling political body. Ninh is vice chair of the National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee.
Speech at Stanford
Ninh is nearing the end of her stay in Northern California, where she accepted an invitation to speak at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. There, she spoke with Stanford President John Hennessy about collaborating with Stanford on building the university.
She heads to Washington, D.C., next, to lobby for Vietnam's acceptance as a permanent normal trade partner, a necessary step before Vietnam can join the World Trade Organization. In 2000, the United States and Vietnam signed a bilateral trade agreement. Trade between the two former wartime enemies grew to $7.8 billion in 2005, a 22 percent jump from the previous year.
Entry into the WTO would give Vietnam an additional economic boost. The United States and Vietnam have reached a preliminary agreement regarding Vietnam's entry into the WTO. The agreement is expected to be signed as early as next week.
Ninh said joining the WTO is an important step for the country's integration into the world economy. Member countries pledge to abide by the group's trade rules and enjoy reduced tariffs and other barriers to trade. ``WTO isn't just about trade,'' said Ninh. ``It's a sign that we are being accepted by the club.''
Entering the WTO would require Vietnam's government to be more transparent and to address corruption. Ninh said the government is prepared to do both.
A quieter trip
Ninh met with a small group of mostly Vietnamese-Americans early Saturday and with business professionals of the Vietnamese Silicon Valley Network in the afternoon.
Her trip was low-key compared with her visit two years ago, when she faced protesters in Southern California, home to the largest Vietnamese community in America. During the Vietnam War, Ninh was a professor of English literature in South Vietnam and secretly was a member of the National Liberation Front for South Vietnam, which supported the communists.
She appealed to Vietnamese-Americans to put the past behind. ``There have been mistakes and losses on both sides,'' she said. ``It's time to stop rehashing the past. We have to move on.''
By K. Oanh Ha - San Jose Mercury News - May 28, 2006.
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