Thomas Vallely (right), director of the Việt Nam Programme at Harvard University, speaks about his impressions of Vũ Khoan and how he drove Viet Nam's economy forward. VNA Photo

HCM CITY – Vũ Khoan, the late secretary of the Party Central Committee and former Deputy Prime Minister, made great contributions to Việt Nam's economy and diplomacy, and left a strong impact on the people he worked with.

Việt Nam News asks Thomas J. Vallely, director of the Việt Nam Programme at the US’s Harvard University and chairman of Fulbright University Việt Nam's board of trustees, about his impressions and memories of the late leader.

How did you first meet Vũ Khoan?

He was an important figure in the normalisation of relations between the US and Việt Nam that took place in the 1990s and through the early 2000s. He along with many other Vietnamese leaders like Phan Văn Khải was in the forefront of the normalisation of relations with Việt Nam.

I worked at the Harvard Institute for International Development at the time, and we were informally consulting with the Government and the Party on how Việt Nam’s reforms would unfold, how extensive they would be, and what the details would be included. We were thinking Việt Nam could be a ‘tiger,’ how it can become like Taiwan (China), Singapore or South Korea.

We knew Vũ Khoan quite well. Vũ Khoan was a vibrant public intellectual about what the path forward would be. He was very active, particularly in the area of trade.

After Việt Nam deregulated agriculture, the next big thing they tackled was trade. And he was an important figure in the bilateral trade agreement that ultimately became a reality just before President Clinton came to Việt Nam in 2000.

We were not close friends, but we knew each other well, and I want to extend the condolences of the Harvard community and Fulbright community to the family for the recent passing of Vũ Khoan, who was, as I mentioned, an important public intellectual.

What are your impressions of Vũ Khoan?

He was opinionated, and he held his view strongly. He clearly knew the direction he thought Việt Nam should go, and he had a good compass for political and economic mechanisms. He was a technocrat with strong political opinions and ideas.

Those ideas are part of why Việt Nam is so successful today… like how do you open up, how do you manage the opening of a closed economy becoming part of the modern, more market-based world?

With strong viewpoints, he argued for them, helping Việt Nam make the final decision to join the bilateral trade agreement with the United States. Trade has become a very important engine of Việt Nam's growth, and Vũ Khoan was the pioneer during the time we made that decision.

Among all this, is there one memory of the man etched in your mind?

It was not a moment when I was with him by myself, but I think it was the moment when President Clinton paid a very historical visit to Việt Nam in 2000. He was meeting and becoming acquainted with the former general secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam, Lê Khả Phiêu.

President Clinton was trying to make his point about how the United States and Việt Nam might work together. In the management of the room and the conversation, I think Vũ Khoan really enhanced that conversation. He had a skilful way of interacting with the mechanisms that needed to change in order for the trade liberalisation to take place.

Later on I think he really became a central figure in revisiting contemporary ideas such as how big Việt Nam's private sector needs to be since it was too small for the 21st century.

What do you reckon we can learn from Vũ Khoan?

We are now looking at contemporary Việt Nam and what is the big thing that has to take place for Việt Nam to continue to have the kind of growth path that it had in the past 30 years.

I think the biggest piece of the equation that needs to be revisited is the size of Việt Nam's private sector. Getting the private sector to be a bigger part of Việt Nam's economy is something that I think Vũ Khoan really understood early on.

In addition to that, I think he has shown that it is important to have a clear opinion about what you want, really understand the direction that the country needs to take, and fight for it. - VNS