Remarks by Ambassador Michael W. Marine

From Foe to Friend: Furthering U.S. Engagement in Vietnam

Chicago Club
81 East Van Buren Street
March 27, 2007, 5:30 p.m.

Good evening and many thanks for welcoming me this evening.  I was struck by the list of luminaries that the Chicago Council for Global Affairs welcomes each month, and honored to be included in the group.

 As I was preparing for my visit, I did a little research on your venerable town, and learned that this is not called the Windy City because of any particular weather patterns.  Apparently, local supporters in the national debate over the hosting of the 1883 World’s Fair awed even New Yorkers – and perhaps even Washingtonians – by their longwindedness in making Chicago’s case.  They not only earned the moniker, but succeeded in hosting that celebrated World’s Fair.  While that success says something for your stamina, I hope my remarks tonight don’t test that, and that you find them a useful stepping off point for questions and conversation.

I learned a few other things about your city as well.  I read that Chicago was incorporated as a town in 1833 with a population of 350; that the Board of Trade, an early priority for this city, was created in 1848; that since then, biblical bouts of disease, disaster, fires and war have competed with booming commerce, sweeping architecture and energetic politicking for the attention and efforts of Chicago's citizens.  Chicago is a city that does more than survive – it flourishes.

You will not be surprised then, I hope, to hear that I am reminded in many ways of my current home in Hanoi.  Like Chicago, Hanoi started out as a very small town nearly 1,000 years ago and has – like the country of Vietnam -- experienced trials, tribulations, challenges and triumphs, and the country as a whole has emerged in recent years stronger than ever before in many ways.  

I have been the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam since September 2004.  In a speech I gave to the American Chamber of Commerce shortly after my arrival in country, I expressed my hope that the ties between the United States and Vietnam would continue to deepen and broaden.  I noted that both sides needed to be patient in order to gain greater confidence in dealing with each other, and I referred to the bilateral relationship as “young, but very promising.”

Now, two and a half years later, I can say with pride that the United States and Vietnam, working very hard, have enabled us to come a long way toward achieving that vision.  The bonds we share have grown broader and deeper, even as we have forged new ones in previously unexplored areas. 

While there are many reasons for this deepening relationship, I believe the key reason is that there is a fundamental recognition – on both sides of the Pacific – of both the importance of stable and productive relations and the steady convergence of the strategic objectives of Vietnam and the United States.  We share common goals for the growth and development of Southeast Asia, for stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region, for success in the struggle against transnational threats and for the continued exchange between our governments and our peoples. 

This is an extraordinary time for Vietnam.  When we reestablished diplomatic ties in 1995, they were with a nation that had struggled through decades of war, and whose last several generations knew nothing but international isolation and communist central planning.  Hanoi was a city of 2.4 million with half as many bicycles.  Today it is a city with more than 3.1 million inhabitants and what seems like four million motorbikes. 

Today, Vietnam is the 150th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and enjoys Permanent Normal Trade Relations with the United States.  Last year, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, or APEC summit hosted by Vietnam, brought leaders from twenty-one nations together, including President Bush.  Vietnam came through that particular Herculean trial with flying colors.  Leading up to this historic event, senior U.S. officials from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, engaged with the Vietnamese counterparts to discuss virtually every aspect of the relationship that I had described as ‘young’ only two years before. 

Now, in addition to government officials, business leaders from Boeing, Microsoft, Intel, Motorola and other top U.S. companies are regular visitors and serious partners of Vietnam.  Since the implementation of our Bilateral Trade Agreement began in late 2001, and in its preparations for accession to the WTO, Vietnam has amended and improved its full panoply of trade and investment laws.  The result has been a boom in two-way trade with the United States, which has ballooned from $1.5 billion in 2001 to $9.7 billion last year.  The United States is Vietnam's top export market and its fourth largest foreign investor. 

Vietnam has become an investment darling, the next Asian Tiger, and expects to attract at least $15 billion in foreign direct investment commitments this year.  Its stock market rose an astounding 144 percent in 2006 and is up more than 50 percent already this year.

Vietnam has seen its GDP rise by at least seven percent annually for the last five years, with last year's growth at 8.2 percent.  The country has witnessed per capita growth double in 14 years, from USD 355 in 1993 to USD 720 today. We expect, and the government plans for, growth to continue at this rate over the next several years.

Even more impressive has been the country's achievements in health and poverty reduction.  According to the World Bank, poverty has fallen by two-thirds, from a rate of 59 percent in 1993 to just 19 percent according to the latest figures available.  The mortality rate for children under five has been cut in half, from 38 per 1,000 children in 1990 to just 19 in 2003.

All around in Vietnam, one sees energy, enthusiasm and hope.  But there is still much work to be done and the Vietnam faces some very real challenges.  

The World Bank’s Doing Business 2007 Report showed that that Vietnam fell to 104th place out of 175 countries -- down six places -- in terms of providing a positive business environment.  Vietnam’s lagging regulatory reforms, cumbersome policies, weak enforcement of contracts and frail investor protections all contributed to this downslide. 

Vietnam must urgently work to combat the cancer of corruption at every level, as Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dzung has pledged to do.  Corruption affects Vietnamese citizens in every walk of life on almost a daily basis, and failure to address this cancer fully and openly threats to gnaw away at the country’s potential.  Barriers to comprehensive reforms also remain high, and Vietnam's ability to realize fully its economic transformation into a middle income country and its dream of becoming an industrialized country by 2020 is being hampered by delays in addressing the need for change. 

In addition, for a deeper overall U.S.-Vietnam relationship to develop, Hanoi will have to reexamine some of its foreign policy principles, in particular its “Friends Towards All” stance.  As a beneficiary of the global trading system, we look to Vietnam to take responsible positions on those states that threaten regional or global stability such as Myanmar, Iran and North Korea. 

We also hope and expect that Vietnam will move to give its citizens greater space to express ideas, practice their religious beliefs and participate in more open systems to ensure accountability, including the right to select their leaders and representatives.  While Vietnam has done very well so far in achieving significant socio-economic developmental gains, taking the next step up will require it to harness fully the energy and creativity of its people.  And in no society is this possible without a more open political system, a system that allows individuals to peacefully and freely express their views, both political and otherwise.

Today, there are a number of individuals in prison and under detention in Vietnam whose only crime was the peaceful expression of their views.  And so I have and will continue to call on the Government of Vietnam to release journalist Nguyễn Vũ Bình, attorney Lê Thị Công Nhân, attorney Nguyễn Văn Đài, Catholic Priest Nguyễn Văn Lý, land rights activist Bùi Kim Thành and attorney Lê Quốc Quân.  And, for the sake of Vietnam’s further international integration and development, I urge the Government to take the steps necessary to ensure that the peaceful expression of one’s views is no longer illegal.

Just over a month ago, I participated in a live web chat on VietnamNet, the country’s biggest online news service, which reportedly has 50 million page hits per day.  In the course of two hours, I received hundreds of live questions on topics ranging from human rights, foreign direct investment and our efforts to address HIV/AIDS, to religious freedom and even what I had studied in college.  The audio of the entire interview was available – unedited - on Vietnam Net's website for over a week, but in the final written transcript posted on the site the next day, three sentences were cut, in which I had called on the government to allow its citizens greater space to express their opinions.  We are reminded, in cases such as this, that the people of Vietnam are eagerly seeking information and interaction, but their government can still act in a controlling way in times when government officials feel they are being criticized. 

And so my staff and I continue to assert the importance of the basic freedoms – of expression, of religion, of association, of assembly -- that we Americans and many others around the world enjoy and cherish.  We will also continue to encourage open and transparent trade practices, the creation of an equitable and dynamic education system, sustainable management of natural resources, responsible collaboration in regional and multilateral organizations and joint efforts to combat numerous health challenges facing Vietnam today. 

An excellent example of this latter area is Vietnam’s participation in President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (or PEPFAR).  Vietnam is one of fifteen countries, and the only one in Asia, that are focus countries in this effort to reduce the spread of this dreaded disease.  Our $59 million program in Vietnam this year provides an area of positive cooperation and important partnership on a critical global threat, one that could rob Vietnam of its new-found vitality if left unchecked. 

Like any relationship, there are real highs, and genuine challenges in our bilateral ties, but let me make a prediction – I believe that we are poised to take our relationship with Vietnam into a new, deeper phase, leading to closer ties in many more areas.  As we move into the second decade after normalization, I foresee a mutually reinforcing partnership.  It is my hope and my belief that Vietnam will continue along its current path of economic and legal reform, with fairly steady improvements in the business climate and growing overall confidence in the transparency of the system.  These reforms will result in real changes in the state-owned enterprises sector and more space for growth in the private sector, the beginnings of effective legal protections for intellectual property, and concrete progress towards establishment of a legitimate rule of law system. 

As the economic situation continues to improve, I also believe that the other freedoms that we as Americans hold so dear will also take hold, grow roots and thrive more openly in Vietnam. 

Both challenges and rewards lie ahead of us, but I remain steadfast in my optimism that the strong partnership and friendship between the United States and Vietnam will continue to grow.  And I am grateful that the City of Chicago, businesses like Boeing and Motorola, and great academic institutions like the University of Chicago and Loyola University, are a part of that.  How lucky our Vietnamese friends are to have partners such as you.  Thank you, and now I’d be happy to take some of your questions.