Letter to the Editor, p.2

The biggest impediment for Vietnam now is that the country does not have a consistent development policy for industry. Inconsistent policies have increased the risks for investment projects. Unreasonable tax policies and the ineffective administrative apparatus have frustrated Japanese investors.

Professor Tran Van Tho
Japan's Waseda University

Cover Story, p.30

The basic problem with Vietnam's industrial policies is that they are ad hoc, short sighted and reactive. Policy makers wait until problems arise, try to sort them out then do little.

AFTA began in 1996 and will end in 2006. So far implementing it has been easy, with no jobs lost, but in the next three years, and particularly between 2005 and 2006, there will be great many tariff reductions. I think the MOF and the General Taxation Department want to keep the [sensitive] tariffs at 20 percent for now and reduce them at the last moment. If they do that, I think there will be big problems between December 2005 and January 2006.

Professor Kenichi Ohno
Tokyo based GRIPS