Vietnam: political and economic challenges and opportunities

Crawford School of Public Policy

Event details

Conference

Date & time

Thursday 03 October 2019
9.00am–5.15pm

Venue

Barton Theatre Level 1, JG Crawford Building 132, Lennox Crossing, ANU

Speaker

Various

Contacts

Dr Long Chu

Australia and Vietnam are deepening their relationship, from ‘friendship to mateship’ as Prime Minister Scott Morrison said in his recent State Visit. How good a ‘mate’ Vietnam will turn out to be depends importantly on its political and economic development from here on.

This one-day conference discusses the constitutional (rule of law) history in Vietnam, and examines the nature of Vietnam’s polity and compares it with China’s. The conference also traces the impact of internal and external forces on the reform of the legal system and state institutions in Vietnam. Despite having one of the most rapid transformations within living memory – from a poor war-torn country to a middle-income country - Vietnam’s economy is coming up against some serious challenges, including environmental constraints and a domestic private sector shackled by crony capitalism. These challenges as well as opportunities to strengthen the skilled labour force through higher education reforms will be canvassed.

Speakers include experts from the ANU, the Fulbright University, Vietnam, and Johns Hopkins University, USA.

Professor Tu-Anh Vu-Thanh is Dean of the Fulbright School of Public Policy and Management, Fulbright University, HCMC, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also currently a member of the Vietnamese Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.

Professor Pham Duy Nghia teaches Law and Public Governance at the Fulbright University, HCMC, and is a member of the Supreme People’s Court Case-Law Advisory Council.

Dr Le Dang Doanh is a well-known commentator on economic reforms and development in Vietnam. Throughout Doi Moi and the subsequent decade, Dr Doanh was President of the Central Institute of Economic Management, a premier government think-tank on economic policy. From 2016 to 2018, Dr Doanh was appointed by the Seretary General of the United Nations to act as a member of the UN Committee for Development Policy.

Dr Quynh Nguyen from the ANU was a post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University. She will speak on the environmental trade-offs for Vietnam, a paper co-authored with Professor Edmund Malesky.

Dr Dung Doan and Professor Bruce Chapman from the ANU will present their work on opportunities for higher education funding in Vietnam.

Professor James Riedel from Johns Hopkins University has been advisor to the Government of Vietnam, and a consultant to the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the China Development Bank, the OECD and other international organisations. He has published widely on international trade, finance and development, including work on China and Vietnam economies. Professor Riedel will summarise the discussions.

Lunch and tea breaks will be provided.

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