Archive for October 5, 2011

Core Causes for Vietnam’s Troubled Economy

Posted in Economics, Politics with tags , , , , , , , on October 5, 2011 by Ian Pham

Vietnam has been struggling to deal with a number of major economic problems over the past year.  The inflation rate of Vietnam’s currency, the dong, has been rapidly rising, while major corporations, such as shipbuilder Vinashin, hovers on the brink of bankruptcy.  According to Bloomberg News (October 5, 2011), Vietnam’s inflation rate has exceeded 20%, becoming the highest of the 17 countries in Southeast Asia.  The country is also facing big trade deficits, brewing difficulties in the banking industry, and continued decline in investor confidence.

Many different causes can be attributed to Vietnam’s economic woes, but none are more prevalent than the corruption and poor, incompetent management that is the Vietnamese government.  It is true that the world is at risk of facing another economic downturn and that many other countries are facing their own economic problems.  However, in the case of Vietnam, the problem stems much deeper than the simple shortcomings of their monetary and fiscal policies.  The problem is what happens behind the scenes of the Communist Party, and how atrociously the government is running the country.

Analysts often describe Vietnam’s economy on the same level as other nations, as if the country was transparent and fair like its counterparts in the global market.  Though this is the fair method of measurement, putting Vietnam on equal grounds with other more democratic countries, it fails to bring to light the real shortcomings of how Vietnam’s economy is run.  It is not just the policies on the surface that is the cause of the downward spiral of Vietnam’s economy.  The economic issues in Vietnam have less to do with the global market, and more with the leaders themselves.

The Political Bureau of Vietnam, the country’s supreme governing body, plays a major role in what goes on inside Vietnam’s economy.  They could care less about the health of their economy, their investors, or even the wellbeing of their own people.  The only thing they care about is maintaining power and filling their own pockets with foreign investment money.  It is a sad truth, but much of the money that should be circulating within the Vietnamese economy is actually flowing right into the bank accounts of Vietnam’s so-called leaders.

Vietnam’s double-digit inflations and bankruptcy of major companies are all due to the fact that their powerful statesmen do not know how to run the economy.  Nguyen Tan Dung has no business trying to shape Vietnam’s economic policy.  He’s a billionaire, with no qualifications whatsoever, where does all the money come from?  Men such as him are the reasons why China is so free to bully their way across the Eastern Sea.  After all, the Chinese Communists are the ones paying off the Politburo in Vietnam, contributing to the repression of the Vietnamese people, and the woes of Vietnam’s economy.