A roundtable meeting was held between the delegations of Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM) and the Institute of Africa and Middle East Studies (IAMES) from Vietnam on 12nd July 2010. Issues such as Vietnam’s economic model, transformation in Vietnam’s economy, Vietnam’s relations with the Middle East, Vietnam’s export markets, and Vietnam’s possible role in Turkey’s opening towards new regions. The Vietnamese delegation consisted of Prof. Do Duc Dinh, the director of IAMES, Pham Tan Hoa from South-South Education Company, Dr. Nguyen Thanh Hien the assistant editor of IAMES publications, Tran Thuy Phuong, the director of IAMES International Relations Department, Pham Thi  Kim Hue, the assistant researcher from Vietnam Foreign Ministry, Tran Thi Loi, the IAMES assistant for administration, Do Thang Duong from Vietnam Science and Technology Ministry and the first secretary in Vietnam’s Embassy to Turkey. 

 

IAMES Director Prof. Do Duc Dinh made a presentation about the structural transformation of the Vietnamese economy, and told briefly that planned economy was implemented in Vietnam until 1986. About the features of that period he told that: “The state owned all property. The economy was dependent on Soviet foreign aid. Therefore, investment and trade had not developed. From 1976 to 1986 the economic structure has been isolated from the rest of the world. The situation deteriorated into an economic and social crisis. The annual growth rate was about 3-4 percent. The GDP per capita was about a hundred dollars. The inflation was about 700-800 percent. Our economy was like the Tanzanian economy. The seventy percent of the population were below the poverty line. We lacked the general food supply.” Dinh said that in 1986, there was a general consensus about a fundamental change and then the “renovation” was started. Dinh told that Vietnam adopted the rules of the free market system however it does not pursue a full scale liberalism practice, and he said “That is why we named our system socialist oriented market economy”. Dinh emphasized that Vietnam had implemented successful policies on ownership, inflation, agricultural production, rural development, export products and consumer goods production. Prof. Dinh expressed that the first stage of the renovation process has been completed and Vietnam is no longer a least developed economy, rather it has recently became a middle-income economy. Prof. Dinh elaborated that Vietnam’s trade volume with the Middle East countries has reached two billion dollars, whereas with Turkey, Vietnam has a trade volume of merely 6-7 million dollars. Dinh told that Vietnam exports labor and food to the Middle Eastern countries and stressed that Vietnam will need oil imports from those countries in the near future. Dinh admitted that they need more knowledge about Middle Eastern countries’ economic and social structures and cultural behaviors, and he told that they need to study the Middle East more closely. 

 

Prof Dinh invited ORSAM experts to a seminar in Vietnam on Middle East-Vietnam relations and suggested to sign a cooperation protocol between ORSAM and IAMES, and an expert exchange program. 

 

Hasan Kanbolat, the director of ORSAM, gave information to the Vietnamese delegation about ORSAM and suggested organizing joint meetings. Kanbolat also called for joint publications in order to contribute to the developing relations between Turkey and Vietnam. Kanbolat raised the issue that Turkey is developing relations with China, Japan, South Korea and India, and he advocated that Vietnam should be a part of these initiatives. He underlined that links between Turkish and Vietnamese intellectuals would serve to strengthen the relations. Kanbolat also said that the Vietnamese experts are welcome to their office in Baghdad, which is to be opened next month.

 

After the meeting, Prof Dinh, the director of IAMES, addressed to the students in ORSAM Summer School.

 

Please check the link for the full text of the meeting.