PANO - Professor Federico Jauch, Chairman of the Switzerland-Cuban Friendship Association, has spent much time in doing research on the renewal process of Vietnam. In an interview with the People’s Army Newspaper reporter on his recent visit to Vietnam, from May 6th to 19th, Professor Jauch said that the renewal itself has exerted its effectiveness in the economic development of Vietnam during the recent past. The important thing is how Vietnam could apply results and lessons learnt from that process in the new context.
The Professor had been very impressed on the great efforts of the S-shaped country in overcoming war consequences and in carrying out the renewal process that, in turn, created the strength for Vietnam in all aspects of life. Through researches he has witnessed deep changes in Vietnam and acknowledges the deep-rooted reasons for Vietnam’s development today.
Professor Jauch also stressed that, over 25 years of implementing renewal, is not a long period of time. “It seems to be part of a person’s life. Yet, during that process, how did Vietnam successfully implement the renewal process and create a magic story? In my opinion, this resulted from the daring change in thought, right orientations and careful preparation”, he judged. “Of course, during that period, Vietnam had to manage to better itself and learn from experience. That was useful for Vietnam, especially when financial crises have been experienced all over the world”.
Explaining why Vietnam was not strongly affected by the global financial crisis in 2008, like most European countries and the USA, he pointed out that despite rising inflation rate, Vietnam’s GDP remained stable and economic growth was not reduced much because Vietnam had learnt from experience gained during the renewal process. Of course, it is undeniable that Vietnam is facing various difficulties in fighting corruption and in hunger eradication and poverty alleviation”.
However, he also warned Vietnam to not be subjective because the impact of economic crisis is huge. Thus, if Vietnam could not curb inflation, the economy and society would be badly affected and unemployment would increase and the true value of salaries and welfare status and the growth in hunger and poverty rate would be reduced. Moreover, it is necessary to promote anti-corruption and transparency in order to maintain a healthy economy, strong enough to confront the storms of crisis.
According to him, renewal in Vietnam has more advantages than in other countries, including Cuba. Firstly, Vietnam had outlined its renewal road very early and applied the lessons learnt from this process and successfully applied them in the new context.
Professor Jauch concluded that this fact has been proven through the statistics on Vietnam economy and its stable GDP in recent years as both Vietnam and Cuba’s renewal target the promotion in reform, economic growth, a stable society and people’s well being.
Reported by Linh Oanh
Translated by Mai Huong