Transparency, explanation

The draft document of the “National programme for Socialist Republic of Vietnam 2006-2010 of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) says: “Although Vietnam has achieved quick progress in realizing the millennium development goals (MDGs) and the Vietnam’s development goals (VDGs), the recent statistics show that there is increasing social and economic inequality. The decentralization of management requires the improvement of the capability in building plans, making and carrying out budget and strengthening the transparency and the responsibility of explanation at all levels”.

There are three emerging problems: social and economic inequality; weakness in the plan making, budget preparation and implementation, and lack of transparency and responsibility of explanation at all levels.

The report of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) for the 2006-2010 period of Vietnam also says: “The responsibility of explanation and the transparency in social life, free and equal competition, equality in opportunities and social responsibility, all are signals of an effective economic policy. To have policies that create equal, integrated and sustainable growth, it is necessary to have wider participation in policy dialogues as well as heightening the responsibility of explanation”.

Once we don’t have the need for transparency and explanation, we don’t ask why public assets are lost. The authors of those reports point out the following gap and warn: “After a long time in the command economy, Vietnam has an extraordinarily large volume of assets in the hands of the State. Most areas of agricultural land have been distributed to farmers, while the State still manages the majority of forests and hills, via state-owned farms”.

“State-owned enterprises also control nearly all valuable land in urban areas. Liberating urban land held by State-owned enterprises will be the key factor in developing the urban land market. The Government needs to seriously realize the possibility that state-owned enterprises will legally sell or lease the land that they are holding”.

To grow sustainably

The UNDAF’s report did acknowledge Vietnam’s recent achievements: “Vietnam’s impressive growth achievement reflects the hard-working, ability and aspirations of the Vietnamese people”.

Along with it came the warning: “To maintain growth, capability and hard-work are not enough, but good policies, economic decisions that are consistent with the long-term interests of the people are needed…”

While the 199-page general report for donors covers Vietnam’s development last year, its title “Management and administration” gives a clear idea of how the donor community sees Vietnam.

“In the context of a nation preparing to build the economic-social development plan for the next period, this is the suitable time to acknowledge the role of the Government. To effectively administer a government apparatus, the issue is not only “how to do” but “do for what”.

UNDAF emphasizes that “it is necessary to have good policies and consistent economic decisions”. To exist alongside the common evolvement of the world, Vietnam needs a government apparatus that is not only strong and capable, but also has a farer vision.

First of all, we can’t maintain growth if we only look at today’s results. Over 20 years ago Intel invested in Penang, Malaysia, to turn into Silicon Valley Asia. Nowadays, as labour costs in Malaysia are quite high, the firm is looking to move to Vietnam, after China. In early 1970s, French fashion firms like Yves St-Laurent leased Hong Kong companies to process their goods, but in the 1990s, Pierre Cardin began hiring Vietnamese workers.

But Vietnam is not the final destination for investment. Cambodia, after joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO), has emerged as a new ‘player’ in the processing market. In a similar line of thought, when Vietnam exports construction workers to Malaysia, Malaysia and Indonesia export their workers to Brunei. That’s international labour assignment. If thought of development policies is only at the “processing” or “labour export” level, then it competes toward failure.

Recommendations abound in the reports. They can be briefed out as follows: to develop sustainably, Vietnam needs effective government apparatus, with future vision, for the interest of the people not the interests of any one person. In that apparatus, the explanation and transparency mechanism must be specific and strict to not facilitate corruption.

Because, like the authors of the “Vietnam development 2005” report warned: the threat is the loss of faith among investors and social discontent. “Some signals of the loss of faith and discontent have already begun to surface. Therefore, Vietnam needs to find measures to quickly resolve these issues”.

On the other hand, “…changes to the responsibility of explanation, decentralization, financial management and public administration will have a basic influence to the mode of operation of the Government… to maintain fast economic growth, to continue reducing hunger and to achieve the Vietnam development goals. This goal is the meaning of the concept “the socialist-oriented market economy”.

Source: Tuoi Tre