Dung’s US visit to take relationship to next level

Education will be one of the visit’s central themes

The visit marked the fourth successive top-leader exchange between Vietnam and the US, according to US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak. The visit will encompass education, environment, science and technology, energy and regional security.

“Even though we’ll have some important discussions on economic and commercial areas which are much the same as we did in the past, this time the whole visit is about going into another level of cooperation,” said Michalak. “You will definitely see some announcements on education which will point the way to even more cooperation in the future.”

Professor Carl Thayer, a specialist on Vietnamese affairs with the Australian Defence Force Academy, said that it was timely for Vietnam and the US to deepen their cooperation in other fields such as education, science and technology.

“The US-Vietnam relationship has largely been concerned with economic issues since normalisation. While the relationship has other dimensions which have not been effectively developed,” said Thayer.
He also said that the US was considering proposing a major educational initiative to Dung including setting up an American university in Vietnam, offering a larger number of scholarships, and funding a major increase in exchanges between scholars and scientists.

Michalak revealed the two sides would look for ways to further exchange views on regional security and global security issues. With regard to environmental issues, improving climate change cooperation is also on the agenda. Experts also said Dung’s visit to the US was a good opportunity for him to restore American investor confidence in the country.

“Dung’s visit is coming at a time when the international community is becoming increasingly concerned at high inflation rates in Vietnam and other aspects of policy touching on the stock market and investment in property,” said Thayer. He also said that this visit would provide the opportunity to reassure them that Vietnam’s economic policy reforms are on course.

“This is a great opportunity for Dung to take his eight-point economic policy and show the American people how they are being translated into concrete policies,” said Michalak. He said that American investors are concerned about the current economic situation. However, they were not likely to jump ship because they view Vietnam as a long-term commitment.

“They believe that up to now, economic management in Vietnam has still been very good. So they’re willing to wait for a while to see how the current economic management handles the inflation situation,” said Michalak.
“I think American investors are extremely interested in Vietnam. Last year we had a trade mission led by the Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez. There were so many American companies interested in that trade mission but we did not have enough space for all of the companies,” he said.

Michalak predicted that although both the US and Vietnam are facing economic difficulties, this year’s two-way trade volume would surpass last year’s record figure of $12.5 billion. “It seems that exporters in both Vietnam and the US are doing quite well. I would not be surprised if this year will go beyond that of [last year’s figure],” said Michalak.