WTO membership, which in effect means ‘globalization,’ will directly affect every Vietnamese family, let alone enterprises.

After several days of celebrating the successful negotiations with the US, it is time to put all our fears and plans on the table.

Ho Xuan Hung, deputy head of the national committee for state-owned enterprises reform, said only 40 percent of the over 100 state-owned giants could compete in the short-term.

“It will be a huge threat to those enterprises if they don’t prepare for the long-term when Vietnam opens its door completely.”

However, Do Trung Ta, minister of posts and telecommunications, was more hopeful: “We are ready, we can rest assured that integration in the fields of post, telecom, and information technology has been going as per plan.”

However, how can we “rest assured” when service quality in the post and telecom sector is poor and prices volatile?

Had it not been for the entry of Viettel, the monopoly of VNPT (Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group), a state-owned group, would be unchallenged and its “customers” weighed down with high charges and poor service.

Some people compare WTO accession with “going out into the high seas”. But in Vietnam even big vessels often struggle to sail in that sea.

They might well sink on their maiden voyage while small ships built to a standard and equipped with modern facilities and an expert crew could outsail these goliaths.

Thus, once the country joins the WTO, a giant economic group will not necessarily have an advantage over a medium-sized enterprise.

If an analogy could be made with football played on a home and away basis, a home team would generally have the advantage. But not in the case of Vietnamese companies.

Its subsidized monopolistic teams could be caught resting on their laurels which were in the first place handed out by default.

These teams, breastfed by the state, might be too big and lazy to improve.

Electricity, automobiles, and iron and steel are expected to find the going tough following integration.

Once the tariff barriers are lowered, how can the country’s car assemblers, for so long subsidized by the state, continue to sell their sub-international standard products at higher-than-international prices?

Other state monopolies would face the same problem.

“Many subsidized enterprises holding a big market share will then face fair competition. The state will not protect them like before,” Pham Tat Thang, director of the trade ministry’s trade information center, said.

However, the more we play, the more we can draw lessons and the more our skills will develop.

We can believe that after the WTO accession Vietnamese goods will improve and Vietnam’s economic profile will be enhanced.

But until then home matches promise to be unpredictable and dramatic.

Written by Thanh Thao – Translated by Hoang Bao

Source: Thanhnien news