Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 15:26:00 -0400 (EDT) From: louisgodena-AT-ids.net (Louis R Godena) Subject: M-I: Re: Vietnam looks east Carla writes: >...The Vietnamese have open Vietnam Square, a major office complex in >Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture, to promote Japanese investment and tourism in >Vietnam and Vietnamese exports to Japan. The push is on to get >Japanese small and medium-size enterprises into the north of Vietnam, as a >counterweight to the larger firms coming in from Korea and the US...How >concerned are you about the currency turmoil in countries like Thailand and >Indonesia? When I was in Ho Chi Minh City in July, Osaka Japan airlines started running daily, *direct*, flights into both Hanoi and HCM City. There are still no direct flights from Tokyo into Vietnam. Osaka's industry model of SMEs is, as you suggest, the model of industrial development Hanoi now favors. Also, there is a great push on to teach Japanese in the public schools, along with English (the official language of ASEAN) and French. Similarly, Overseas Development Aid-funded projects are picking up, resulting in more and more people being "re-located" from land deemed highly suitable for industrial projects. This has led to substantial resistance on the part of the Vietnamese, delaying implementation of ODA projects and subsequent complaints from Japanese donors. Concerning the currency crisis in Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur; The direct impact is unlikely to be serious, since Vietnam doesn't have any stock markets or direct transactions with their currencies. But there will in all likelihood be an indirect impact, because Vietnamese producers will face tougher competition as other countries' currencies depreciate. Their products will become cheaper, and they'll be in a better position to penetrate the Vietnamese market. Louis Godena --- from list marxism-international-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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