Uncle Ho, Bill Gates and ka-ching!
UNITED NATIONS — As Vietnam’s Communist elders held their Party Congress in Hanoi under the watchful gaze of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Ho Chi Minh, not far away in the Vietnamese capital thousands of young people thronged to see visiting American capitalist superstar Bill Gates. The symbolism was a stark as one could imagine — Marx, Microsoft and Markets!
So as Vietnam’ Communist Party 10th Congress dutifully droned on about the past and the ongoing victories of the socialist state, one finds a relatively young country looking forward to finally joining Southeast Asia’s prosperity through riding the wave of information technology.
Bill Gates, who a week earlier feted visiting People’s Republic of China President Hu Jintao in the USA, was now in Vietnam promoting the information technology highway as a path to the future. He told students as at the University of Technology, “You represent the future of invention and technology…In fact, you represent the future of this country, making sure it uses digital processes to grow in a rapid way.”
A Financial Times article stated, “The rapturous reception given the Microsoft founder, as the country’s leaders were discussing the ‘socialist-oriented markets economy’ reflects the conflicting impulses in today’s Vietnam, where the ruling communists are struggling to reconcile their aspirations for a strong ‘knowledge based economy’, with the legacy of the socialist past.”
Over the past two decades the Hanoi communists have allowed limited market reforms and economic freedoms (having learned from Mainland China) a system called doi moi. Still let’s not forget that the 3 million member communist party, representing less than five percent of the population, remains the sole legal political group in the country of 85 million people.
Reforms are certainly bringing long overdue prosperity to certain sectors. Between 2000 and 2005 the economic growth expanded at an impressive annual rate of 7.5 percent. Last year it hit 8.4 percent. Without question this renovation should be seen in the context of starting from a lower base but still very much pulled down by the albatross of the top-heavy and corrupt state sector. Equally Vietnam remains overwhelmingly rural with 63 percent of the population still engaged in agriculture.
Vietnam set targets to raise its annual per capita income to $1,100 by 2010 from the current $640. Equally Hanoi hopes to enter the World Trade Organization later this year.
Still overcoming the culture of corruption remains a hurdle for the ruling communists and their re-elected party boss Nong Duc Manh. According to the Hanoi-based Vietnam Business Forum magazine “The crucial eight-day gathering was held in the shadow of a corruption scandal in which transport ministry officials embezzled millions of dollars, mainly from World Bank and international donors’ loans, to buy lavish homes and cars and bet on European football. …According to unofficial statistics, as many as 9,960 corruption-related cases were unearthed in Vietnam in the 12 years prior to 2005, causing damages worth $478 million. However, the statistics are believed to be just the tip of an iceberg.” The publication conceded that a party spokesman said that about 40,000 party members have been disciplined, some for corruption, in the past five years.
As London’s Financial Times opined editorially, “The Vietnamese Communist party is unsure how to deal with this awkward mix of corruption, capitalism, and old-fashioned socialism.”
Recently America’s Intel corporation announced plans to construct a $300 million microchip assembly plant in Ho Chi Minh City, better known as Saigon. The investment underscores the parallel reality that an educated and computer savvy sector of the society makes Vietnam an attractive location for high tech companies. According to the UN’s Information Economy Report for 2005, Vietnam has about 6 million internet users and a 7 percent internet penetration rate. These numbers are expected to rise very quickly.
Symbolism abounds. The golden bust statue of communist Vietnam’s founder Ho Chi Minh parallels the digital information highway’s boundless promise of openness and prosperity. In a society of secular materialism, many Vietnamese are now choosing between Worship of the golden image of Uncle Ho and the Golden Baal of Globalization.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense
issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com. |
