Communist Party Wants Better Control
Economic difficulties make authorities in Viet Nam hysterical
Two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal, Asia edition, reported on foreign companies’ worries over Vietnamese authorities increasingly restricting the freedom to do business, while the country braces for an economic downturn, rising inflation, and a collapse of its national currency, the Dong.
The Communist Party, which has been in power for 35 years in a reunified country, wants to better control the country’s economic and social evolution. The Party demonstrates this by implementing price control for foreign goods; blocking access to websites and social media, such as Facebook and Twitter; and arresting bloggers.
The arrest of executives at Jetstar Pacific - the Vietnamese subsidiary of the Australia-based budget carrier - is the latest indication of Viet Nam’s Politburo tightening grip. The two Australian senior executives are Jetstar Pacific's chief operating officer, Daniela Marsilli, and the airline’s chief financial officer, Tristan Freeman. The airline’s previous CEO, Luong Hoia Nam, was also arrested for questioning over losses due to fuel hedging. Jetstar Pacific has announced a loss of US$34 million. Australian citizens have been denied the right to leave Vietnam as long as the investigation is ongoing.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce - Jetstar's main shareholder - has defended the decisions of his executives and renewed his confidence in doing business in Viet Nam. "We do know that airlines around the world experience losses as a result of hedging. It's not unusual; it's not uncommon," declared Joyce during an interview with Australian television network ABC News. However, the event might discourage foreign investors to come to Viet Nam for a long time.
Comments
"High risk comes with high return. Invest at your own risk!"
"It's not worth trying to do bussiness in Vietnam "
You dont need to do business in Vietnam if you 1/ think you are rich enough, or 2/ you have no money at all.
Vietnam's economy sustains at more than 5% growth despite global recession. Citi Group's report just shows that Vietnam has actually fared much better than expected.
Foreigners are very welcomed in Vietnam but they must practice business with prudence. Communist law finds defendants guilty first until proven innocence.
High risk comes with high return. Invest at your own risk!
It the JetStar case, it's also interesting to know that it was Aussies engineers who has been accusing their bosses (also Aussies) of violating standard safety rules.
I agree with the article and Minh Nguyen, facebook in Vietnam is now very famous and the number of users is still rocketing. But the government fears the voice of the people over peer to peer channel because they cannot control it. They do not want to hear the blame or even the thinking which is different from theirs. A lot of bloggers, famous intellectuals, lawyers, writers, and democratic activists are arrested and convicted as betrayer of the country even before the judgment. But really the unseen unrest is wide-spreading with lots of critics of the inability, corruption and even worse of the government. Yes, the income of some are rapidly increasing, but for the major part of the population it is decreasing when thinking about the notorious high rate of inflation and also big portion of some who have high income are making their fortune by illegal activities or by relation with high ranking government officials.
In this setting, with increasingly bad sentiment of the people of high inflation and decreasing living standard, the government has to use administration rule as its latest resort to control the price. But whether the government stops with these action when the deficit and government loan is too high and it seems to issue more government bond is the next issue. What a bad scenario for economists and business people!
People doing bussiness in communist
countries such as Vietnam must know that the Vietnamese communists only
want your money.Period.They are all
corrupt.
The present group running the country will try to scoop as much money as they can ,leaving the next group-which is appointed by Beijing- almost nothing .That is the reason for power struggling ,and Jetstar is only a victim of that .
It's not worth trying to do bussiness in Vietnam .All you have to do is to look at the way they (communists) treat their own people .
And by the way ,if you are in Vietnam trying to access youtube or social network on the Net .Good Luck .
I dont agree with TW's opinion about facebook
Firstly I am Vietnamese, so i suppose my opinion about what is going in my country holds some truth.
Secondly, there are increasingly number of facebook users in Vietnam. You could argue that it's just a portion of Vietnamese population.
However, the majority of that portion are people living in big city, where they care more about politics, right to speak freely of your idea, better chance to access to information.
Vietnam is a country where 70% population (as i remember, this number could slightly changed) are farmer, and their economic condition are not good. It's undeniably that GDP per capita in Vietnam is around 1000$ but that does not mean the relationship of the poor andn the rich is anything better than in the pass. Because of this, there is a huge gap between urban and countryside.
So,in my opinion, blocking facebook has a considerable strong effect.
A couple of facts in this article that are not correct to my knowledge.
1.) Twitter has not been blocked to date by the government. The number of Vietnamese users is limited and does not have the scope of facebook so it's not seen as big of a threat.
2.) The only arrests made that I know of are of the Vietnamese national executive. Foreign executives are not being allowed to leave the country at this time pending further investigation but they have not been arrested.
Post new comment