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News
May 22, 2002
Former
Vietnamese PM says never saw mafia scandal papers
By David Brunnstrom
HANOI (Reuters) - Former Vietnamese Prime
Minister Vo Van Kiet, a key reformer caught up in widening mafia graft scandal,
has reiterated that he never saw documents recommending the release of a
notorious underworld kingpin in the 1990s.
The champion of market reform, who stepped down in September 1997, just days
before the release of mafia boss Truong Van Cam, told a state-run newspaper he
would have rejected the recommendations had he seen them.
"It was not acceptable to release Nam Cam," Kiet said in an interview published
in Tuesday's Tuoi Tre (Youth). "I remember I was not told of the two letters."
His comments came after the prime minster's office said Kiet's assistant in
1997, ambassador to Uzbekistan Nguyen Quoc Bao, had been called to Hanoi to
answer whether he passed the documents to the prime minister.
The investigation is further twist in a widening scandal diplomats believe could
be connected to a power struggle ahead of a cabinet reshuffle due to be
announced in July.
Kiet, now 79, has been a key power broker and is considered an ally of current
Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, who has been widely tipped to retain his post at
least until late 2003 for lack of suitable successor.
Kiet, Khai and one of the favourites to succeed him, Nguyen Minh Triet, are all
from Ho Chi Minh City where Cam's gang based its operations.
It was Kiet who in 1995 launched an investigation into Cam which led to his
detention in a re-education camp in 1996 and he has said before he should never
have been freed.
Better known by his nickname Nam Cam, Truong Van Cam was arrested again last
December on suspicion of organising crimes ranging from murder to prostitution
and gambling, protected by senior police officers and officials.
The crackdown on his gang has seen the detention of more than 110 people,
including several senior police officers and the barring of the
ministerial-ranked head of state radio from National Assembly polls held on
Sunday.
The crackdown has been organised by the Public Security Ministry, a former
official of which, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, is considered a rival
for the premiership.
Diplomats and other analysts do not see the scandal as a threat to Vietnam's
market reforms given that the two main rivals to succeed Khai are thought to be
supporters of the process.
Reports about the Nam Cam scandal have been splashed over the pages of state-run
newspapers for weeks and succeeded in convincing many voters in Sunday's
elections that action was at last being taken against rampant corruption, which
party chief Nong Duc Manh has called the number one poll issue.
Khai said after voting that there would likely be further arrests and anyone
guilty of wrongdoing would be punished.
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Cuba policy is driven
by domestic politics
WASHINGTON (AP) - The United States and Cuba
have not had normal relations in 41 years. Judging by the demands President Bush
has set forth, it's not going to happen any time soon.
"Full normalization of relations with Cuba -- diplomatic recognition, open
trade and a robust aid program -- will only be possible when Cuba has a new
government that is fully democratic, when the rule of law is respected, and when
the human rights of all Cubans are fully protected," Bush said.
No other country is asked to meet that standard, and it's doubtful any could.
Certainly China couldn't, nor Vietnam nor a host of Arab and African countries
with which the United States maintains fully normal relations without strings.
Last January, the Bush administration tripled U.S. assistance to Uzbekistan just
two days after President Islam Karimov conducted a referendum widely criticized
as fraudulent. As a neighbor of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan is considered by the
administration as a key player in the war on terrorism. It gets plenty of slack
from Washington.
Bush outlined his demands about Cuba in two speeches Monday -- one a sober
address in the White House, the second a stem-winder in Miami that kept the
thousands of Cuban-Americans present on their feet, arms thrust upward.
Countries tend to reach out to ideologically opposite regimes at times of
national peril. The U.S.-Soviet alliance forged during World War II contributed
greatly to Nazi Germany's defeat, and spared the lives of countless American
soldiers.
Years later, President Nixon sought detente with China's repressive regime,
seeing Beijing as a valuable ally against the Soviet Union. His initiative was
well received.
There are no such compelling national security reasons for seeking accommodation
with Cuba. Indeed, there are strong domestic political reasons for not doing so,
says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.
Sabato says Cuban-Americans have an influence far in excess of their numbers
because they are concentrated in a state with a large number of electoral votes
and which is evenly split, as the 2000 presidential election showed.
There also is what Sabato calls "the double Bush factor." The president not only
helps himself in Florida by bashing Cuba's communist president, Fidel Castro,
but also helps Bush's younger brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, who happens to be up for
re-election in November.
The United States often sees merit in trying to engage unfriendly states. Two of
the three members of the Bush's "axis of evil" -- North Korea and Iran -- fall
into this category. Neither is told that democratic reforms are the price for
normal relations. But without contact, Washington has no way of influencing them
to halt their military buildups.
Double standards tend to be a normal part of statecraft. Castro, for example,
has ranted for years about his "imperialist" neighbor to the north. But he
applauded the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and remained largely
silent when Moscow invaded Afghanistan 11 years later.
For all of Bush's anti-Castro fervor, a new alliance is developing between Cuba
and U.S. lawmakers from farm states, which have benefited from a sudden surge of
exports -- more than $90 million -- to the island over the past few months.
They see 40 years of economic embargo against Cuba as a failure and see no
reason why Americans should not be able to travel freely to Cuba. Bush has vowed
to veto any bill that eases restrictions in either area.
It's hard to remember a time when forces opposed to the embargo have been
stronger.
Sabato believes that if Cuba's market were the same as China's (it's about 100
times smaller), Bush would not be making the kind of speeches that he made on
Monday. If that were the case, Sabato says, pro-democracy sentiments would fade,
and Castro would be seen as a man Americans could do business with.
"My guess is we would make the pragmatic choice," he says.
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Korea-Vietnam trade to change drastically in 3-5 years
By Kim Mi-hui
Staff Reporter
(Korea Herald) -
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the establishment
of diplomatic relations in December, Korea and Vietnam
have thus far had a growing, if imbalanced, trade
relationship, but there will be drastic changes within
the next five years, a Vietnamese trade expert
predicted.
"Vietnam is going through a big transformation right
now and this is going to alter the paradigm of the
trade and investment relationship we have had," Tran
Manh Hung, commercial counselor at the Embassy of
Vietnam in Seoul, told The Korea Herald.
The biggest change is expected to begin in 2005 when
Vietnam starts operating its first oil-manufacturing
base. After this, petrochemical factories will begin
opening up, which means the country will start
reducing imports of petrochemical products.
"Oil will become one of our leading export products,
and we will also start importing less petrochemical
products," Tran said. Petrochemical products have been
one of Korea's top export items to Vietnam, along with
material for shoes and clothing.
Also, as the country is currently investing in
building factories to produce materials for making
shoes and clothes, it will also drastically reduce the
amount of material imported from Korea.
"In about three years, I predict that our main import
items will be high-tech IT goods and modern
machinery/equipment, while we will begin exporting
value-added products. Also, Vietnam is looking into
the agricultural market in Korea since it will have to
open its market due to pressure from the World Trade
Organization," he forecast.
One of the new high-tech IT goods going into Vietnam
may be Korea's CDMA mobile phones. According to the
counselor, Korea's SK, LG and Donga are currently
working on a "SLD project," a large scale program that
involves establishing a CDMA system for mobile phones
in Vietnam, which has thus far been using European
phones.
The three Korean companies are planning on investing
$2.3 billion in the first stage of investment and $4
billion in total. The project is at a testing stage
right now, but could begin services as early as the
end of this year, he said.
Korea-Vietnam total trade volume last year was a
little over $2 billion, with Korea shipping $1.73
billion worth of goods and Vietnam $385 million, hence
the country's complaints about trade imbalance. The
scale continued to tip in the first quarter of this
year, with Korea exporting $407 million and Vietnam
$98,860.
Korea is Vietnam's fourth largest trading partner
after Japan, Taiwan and Singapore.
Korea and Vietnam did not always have a friendly
relationship. In fact, for years Vietnam held a bad
image of Korea because of the violence its military,
working under former President Park Chung-hee,
perpetrated in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.
But after the two established diplomatic ties in 1992,
Korea's top companies like Samsung, Daewoo and Hyundai
began to invest in Vietnam and their products began to
win over the Vietnamese consumers. "Vietnamese people
saw that Korean products are relatively low priced but
of good quality. Korean goods are very popular," Tran
said.
Some mega-hits of the past decade include Samsung's
black-and-white TV that runs on batteries and LG's
water pump, he said.
But the biggest hit product has to be Korean dramas,
which have become extremely popular in Vietnam.
"Through Korean dramas, we have leaned about Korea's
culture, life, traditions, thoughts, customs - like
respect the elders and always be polite. These made
Korean commercial products like cosmetics and hair dye
very popular," he said.
Meanwhile, the Korea-Vietnam investment relationship
is also likely to shift, he said. Since Vietnam signed
a trade treaty with the U.S., Korean firms' interest
in Vietnam has grown noticeably, with the main
interest being in sewing. "Korean companies want to
make clothes in Vietnam and export to the United
States from there because the United States has no
quota for such products from Vietnam."
Korea is also Vietnam's fourth major investment partner after Taiwan, Japan and
China.
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