World AIDS Day isn’t just about the 1.2 million Americans infected with this virus or those who become infected everyday. It’s about the people of the world coming together to solve a problem we all face in our lives – through ourselves, our friends, our families, and our communities.

In Vietnam, over 222,000 people are infected with HIV/AIDS. In Tanzania, where I visited this summer, over 1.4 million are suffering from this virus. This isn’t a dilemma of America, it’s a dilemma of the world.

Although stigma and ignorance still surround HIV/AIDS, take today to learn more about this issue and educate others to prevent it from spreading. The lack of sexual education for women results in increasing numbers, in addition to drug use and unsafe sex worker practices. The only way to change and rise above is to take action.

In Vietnam, Nguyen Minh Tuan, a student at Van Lang University in Saigon, Vietnam, created a dress out of 700 condoms as part of his graduation project titled “Breaking The Condom Taboo.” Creativity is his tool to educate others about the issue of HIV/AIDS, and condoms are his platform to exemplify a solution to the problem. What will you do to spread the word and educate?

Watch more of Nguyen Minh Tuan’s project below.

Typhoon season is upon us.  By now, you’ve hopefully heard of tropical storm Haima, which made landfall in northern Vietnam.  If not, please take a moment to find out more in the video below.  This video is a little dated; latest reports estimate that at least 16 have been killed and many more injured.

Tropical Storm Haima Kills Six in Vietnam by NewsLook

The disputes over contended maritime territories between China and Vietnam seem to have diffused for the time being, as both sides agree to move in the way of diplomacy rather than in the way of force.  That said, force was never in the interest of either country anyway.  What do you think returns to the talking table could mean?  Is either country likely to hold concessions?  How will the public respond?  The video below is from a Chinese news agency.

If you need to get caught up to speed on the disputes, the video below by the Asia Society is a starting point. It’s a little bland, but it’s informative and a tool for you to assess for yourself the situation. It offers a little more about the US’s role as well.

Go on, I’ll wait. Now that we’ve all basked in the glory of the ever-dapper Luke Nguyen, consider what a significant achievement Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam represents. As the first Vietnamese expatriate to headline a successful transnational television show (Maggie Q’s horrendous re-reincarnation of La Femme Nikita not withstanding), Nguyen exposes a Western audience to an image of Vietnam that often contradicts their common knowledge. The show takes for its subject not simply food or travel, but the people and culture of Vietnam. It is, in essence, a Vietnamese expatriate’s fantastic journey through the perils of modern Vietnamese society in an attempt to reclaim culinary and ethnic authenticity.

I’ve learned quite a bit from Luke Nguyen, the most enlightening of which is that unless it’s cooked in lemongrass, it isn’t truly Vietnamese. This places my entire life in crisis: am I really Vietnamese or have my parents mislead me? How much lemongrass must I consume to reaffirm my Vietnamese authenticity?

The Ever-Dapper Luke Nguyen

These signifiers of Vietnameseness, of course, are arbitrary, and in the case of lemongrass, environmental. But the question of authenticity continually re-emerges as we watch Luke Nguyen interact with his native brethren. The audience sees him cook in strange, exotic locales as a flurry of Vietnamese people surround him. Often, he invites a guest to sit and (uncomfortably) watch him cook, acting as a kind of living backdrop that attests to his authority. “Look,” it says, “a real Vietnamese person accompanies me.” This, of course, raises several questions: is Luke Nguyen not a real Vietnamese person? Is he some fake Vietnamese/Australian cyborg sent back in time to kill John Connor? And if he really is Vietnamese, why must the show constantly strive to prove as much to its Western audience?

That Sweet Aussie Accent

The show’s desire for authenticity may stem from the standard stereotype of the accented Asian. But let’s first be clear about what an accent is. Regional “accents” are, in actuality, dialects. Accents, instead, are a matter of (mis)pronunciation – what, for instance, someone Fresh Off the Boat would have. The FOB stereotype is so pervasive that it haunts even the most pompous Ph.D. candidates in English literature. On more than one occasion, I’ve been congratulated, in all sincerity, on how well I speak English. “Why thank you,” I always reply, “yours is aight.” Such an experience reveals the assumptions being made about what a typical Vietnamese (or Asian) person should sound like, and these are the same assumptions that challenge Nguyen’s claim to authenticity. If the stereotype imagines all Asians, whether first- or second-generation, as an accented caricature, it also inversely questions the ethnic and cultural knowledge of “unaccented” Asian people. As someone with a distinctly Western dialect, Nguyen is forced to continually remind his audience that despite his Aussie “accent,” he is ethnically, culturally, and linguistically Vietnamese. The relatives he visits, his scripted knowledge of Vietnamese culture, the people he awkwardly speaks to on screen – all attest to his Vietnamese heritage. This constant reiteration helps Nguyen gain much of his culinary authority. After all, who would watch a show called, “John Smith’s Vietnam?”

Authenticity and Exploitation by Proxy

On some level, the show is also about Luke Nguyen’s personal odyssey to reclaim his Vietnamese ancestry.

Luke Nguyen Attacked by Sea Creature

He roams the countryside flirting with young ladies, gets himself into all kinds of trouble, and narrowly escapes with help from the native inhabitants. He even gets attacked by a sea creature – or two-inch squid – in the middle of the night. Homer would be proud.

This reclamation of his authenticity, however, sometimes comes at the expense of the native Vietnamese population. Whether their presence is necessary or a twisted form of tokenism, it’s never made clear. And that is at once the beauty and frustration of Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam. It straddles the line between homage and exploitation, between a celebration of culture and an incitement to tourism. As a Vietnamese expat who is also culturally Western, Nguyen acts as a tour guide to the “real” world of Vietnam. But like the contradiction between his English dialect and his Vietnamese dialogue, the audience never experiences an “authentic” Vietnam. As the title suggests, Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam is a mediated experience. When he says, “It’s a pity I’m here alone” while cruising down a serene river in Tam Coc, you can’t help but feel sorry for the invisible Vietnamese person rowing him around. Or when he makes a game out of carrying 40-kilo baskets, an activity, he recounts, that “these little ladies” do all day, you’re not sure whether you should be buoyed by their strength or question his privileged trivialization of their harsh life.

At moments, the tension between what he says and what occurs on screen is palpable. Check out his interaction with the elderly Hmong woman starting at 22:00:

You feel for the old Hmong lady as Nguyen informs the audience that the Hmong in this area are incredibly poor and can rarely afford meat in their diet. He tells you this all before slicing up a piece of smoked duck breast and tasting it in front of the poor woman’s eyes. He even asks, “Thu Khong?” but then seemingly changes his mind and shoves it in his own mouth. The scene highlights a very clear disconnect between what he says and what he does. It signals an incredible failure on his part to appreciate the situation as he recites from the script. His words acknowledge that many people – like the woman perched behind him – can’t afford meat even as his actions reveal an apparent incomprehension of its consequences.

The Trouble with Translations

But the show’s mediation goes beyond simply using the native Vietnamese population as props to promote Nguyen’s authenticity. It also makes judgments as to what counts as legitimate and intelligible speech. Anyone who speaks multiple languages knows that the act of translating is a tricky business. The cultural production of language makes it nearly impossible to translate the literal, idiomatic, and connotative at the same time.

Translations are even trickier in Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam.

In some instances, the Vietnamese is subtitled as well as can be expected. In others, however, the show simply ignores the Vietnamese words uttered. The value judgment here, that these words aren’t important or lack the intelligible content viewers can comprehend, typifies the Western notion of foreign languages as insignificant gibberish. At times, subtitles are absent when Nguyen translates for the audience. At others, both subtitles and translations go missing. When he asks the Hmong lady if she’d like to try the smoked duck in Vietnamese – and then fails to follow through – the show gives neither subtitle nor translation. Non-Vietnamese speakers miss the disconcerting exchange, and its import, altogether.

Luke Nguyen Taunting Old Lady

The show’s selective representation, strangely, is even more problematic when he offers translations, since his renditions are almost always misleading. He often asks his guests in Vietnamese if the food smells good. They’ll give a little nod or quietly say “yeah” – how else could they respond? – and he’ll translate it emphatically as, “She said it smells delicious!” And all in that charming Aussie accent.

It’s likely that correctly subtitling these leading questions would raise doubts as to his authority and authenticity. If a chef has to ask for validation and receives a quick nod in return, it doesn’t exactly instill confidence in his abilities. And Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam, like all cooking shows, is heavily invested in its chef’s ability to not only produce, but astound. Instead of subtitles with that ambivalent nod, then, the viewer sees a real Vietnamese person supposedly enamored with Nguyen’s food. And what better verification of his Vietnamese and culinary authenticity than confirmation from a native Vietnamese person?

A large part of these questionable situations come from the artifice of the show’s “reality” format. We don’t expect authentic castaway life from Survivor, so why from Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam? Still, it’s difficult to come to terms with some of these representations of Vietnameseness.

What do you think the lesson from Luke Nguyen’s desire for authenticity is? Or, better yet, what the hell is Vietnamese authenticity, anyway?

This article is the first in a proposed series that examines Luke Nguyen’s journey to his native land in order to explore the often troubled, and always entertaining intersections between culture, identity, sexuality, and, of course, food. Look for Questionable Vietnamese Masculinity in the near future.

Image credits to Zedomax.com

Ah, the miracles of YouTube.

Via Gizmodo comes a modern day story of mistaken identity and new constructions of the family unit:  James West, an Australian bloke, had been mistakenly CC’ed emails intended for an American James West from the Tran family in Florida for three years.  This year, the Aussie decided to look into those emails and–despite the fact that he’d never met and wasn’t actually related to the them–found an unexpected kinship with the Trans.  He decided to respond to the Trans’ Thanksgiving invitation through YouTube, and they kindly let him into their home for a holiday meal.

Watch James explain his story in his own words and meet the real Trans and the American James West below.

I find this story hilarious and heartwarming.  Sure, it’s often suggested that the internet has created a new generation of virtually engaged but socially disconnected youngsters, but if it weren’t for the instantaneity of email, how else could we get this bizarre story?  I love how the Trans come to think of Australian James West as a “long lost relative from Vietnam.”  This is the stuff of novels and movies, I tell you!

Consul General An T. Le. Photo from usconsulate.gov.

An T. Le, the formidable, “broad-shouldered 6-foot-2 inch diplomat” (as described by the San Jose Mercury News), officially started his three-year term as consul general in August.  Le returns to Vietnam at a time when US-Vietnam relations are reaching new grounds.  As both a Vietnamese and an American, there are high hopes that Le’s ability to navigate between cultures can help bridge gaps between the overseas Vietnamese community and their motherland.

During his term, Le will focus on promoting trade and bringing awareness to environmental and health issues.  Prior to his return to Vietnam, Le held posts in Beijing, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Seoul, and Paris.  Le worked with the US Department of the Navy for 15 years before finding his way into Foreign Service.  He holds degrees in engineering from George Washington University.

Le is one of the highest-ranked Vietnamese-American diplomats.  What do you hope Le can accomplish during his three years in Vietnam?

Sources:

US Consulate

San Jose Mercury News

For a better understanding of VNMAP’s operations and how it has helped shaped young medical minds, check out the reflections of Ryan Brennessel, a medical student and former participant, below.

***

Throughout my life, I have had the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world.  As my mother worked for a major airline for nearly three decades, I was exposed to various cultures and lifestyles by the time I had reached the eighth grade.  These incredible experiences allowed me to see all the usual highlights on any traveler’s itinerary, but what made more of an impact on me was witnessing first hand the extreme poverty and deplorable conditions outside usual tourist stops.  Seeing people struggle to survive on so little made me appreciate what I have and what I have been given throughout my life. Being aware of this at such a young age, I vowed that one day I would get involved in giving back.

When I found out that I had been selected to be a medical student team member on the Viet Nam Medical Assistance Program’s 2010 mission trip, I realized that it would be a wonderful opportunity to make a difference.  My trip into the rural regions of the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam further opened my eyes to the healthcare disparities that exist globally.

The team I worked with consisted of physicians, pharmacists, translators, volunteers, physician assistant students and fellow medical students who worked feverishly in oppressive heat and poverty stricken villages over the course of two weeks to examine up to, and sometimes more than, two hundred people per day. Days began early, starting with the loading of a small bus with medicine and medical supplies and a long drive through narrow roads that cut through rice paddies and vegetation. Our final destination changed each day, but we usually ended up at a rundown school house or government building that we would then transform into a makeshift clinic. Goals included providing basic screenings, medication, nutritional supplements, patient education, as well as financial support and follow-through for extreme case referrals to city hospitals. Data was collected for a collaborative study on hypertension—a burdening issue for many Vietnamese—with the goal of better understanding how to treat it. (Hopefully, with this knowledge, the people of rural Viet Nam can be cared for on a more long-term and sustainable basis.)  Surplus medical supplies from clinic days were collected and personally delivered to orphanages, shelters for mentally disabled and blind children, non-profit clinics, and a senior care center.

The impact the mission had on me cannot be described in words. The program did more than just provide for the underserved of Viet Nam; it also gave me the educational experience of a lifetime. It allowed me to increase my awareness of the human condition, and explore particular areas of medicine where I can make a significant contribution.  The trip offered insight into an amazing culture that was both very different, yet principally similar at the same time.  Many of the diseases and ailments I had spent months reading about and studying in text books now had an unforgettable face and story. There were opportunities to work beside Vietnamese and American doctors and watch them care for   patients with the utmost display of compassion. I observed interactions that no textbook can teach an aspiring physician.  It was an honor to be a part of a team that worked tirelessly in less than optimal conditions to help those who are less fortunate. For me, this mission was not just the fulfillment of a desire to travel, but a step in the direction of becoming a competent and caring physician both at home and abroad.

Correction: A previous version of this post misspelled the author’s name as Ryan Bressells.  The correct spelling is Ryan Brennessel, as seen above.

Before addressing the topic of China’s under-valued currency, let us step back to see why is Chinese yuan under-valued and what caused it?

In a free-floating exchange rate global economy, if a country offers high interest rates, then international investors will pour their supply of funds into that market and lower the interest rates until they are no longer attractive. The following supply & demand of loanable funds should make it clear:

(source)

Along with this in-pour of investments, if China does not expand its currency reserve, then we should see a rising in exchange rate between China yuan & US dollar. The reason is because if there are more US dollars for the same amount of Chinese yuan, then the dollars become less and less valuable.

However, for the decade of 1995-2005, China has been fixing its RMB to USD exchange rate by printing money and expand its currency reserve to match the 1995′s RMB to USD level. In addition to doing this, China does not allow its citizens to freely invest abroad by putting a tight control on the exchange between RMB and other foreign currencies. In this way, China is devaluing its currency. China took a short break but began to do this again since 2008.

(source)

Now that we confirmed that China is devaluing its currency. But how does this affect the world economy?

Well, for countries that do not print money as fast as China, Chinese products became cheaper for foreigners and many foreign companies shift their productions to China because of lower production costs (including labor costs). This means that the foreign countries, including the US, can use less of their money to produce the same amount of goods. In turn, they can use the extra savings to invest in their more competitive and leading industries such as pharmaceuticals and financial services. As for the foreign citizens, they can use the extra savings for a nice vacation or an extra car.

At the same time, we will see that comparatively less productive industries such as plastic production will be shifted oversea to China – where they can be competitive. This, in turn, will require foreign workers to shift their industries or move to China in order to be productive. The workers who are unwilling to find a new career or migrate will be likely to lose their jobs. This is why we usually see more complaints from worker unions than from the firm managers.

On the opposite end, we also see that foreign products are more expensive to Chinese citizens. Why? Because prices are rising everywhere in the world because governments are on their race to print money in order to close their spending gap. However, since Chinese government is fixing their exchange rates, the Chinese citizens now have to earn more yuan to buy the same the product. As the result, the Chinese citizens can afford less and less things in their daily lives.

In brief, we can see that, by devaluing the yuan, the Chinese government is hurting its own citizens and some incompetent foreign industries & workers. At the same time, this Chinese trade-surplus is enriching foreign citizens and competitive industries by allowing them to invest money in something better.

The lesson for Vietnam?

Vietnamese leaders should recognize the effects of devaluing currency on Vietnamese citizens. A better way to assist the growth of Vietnam is to provide quality job-related trainings and allowing free exchange rates to avoid making Vietnamese lives harder for the reasons mentioned above.

Vietnamese workers should not hang on to one job for life. Every industries has it life-death cycle. Knowing this, the only way to remain competitive is to keep on learning and be creative.

“Mind if I smoke?” asks Khôi to his girlfriend, who sits on the other side of the table in a Saigon cafe.

Smoking condition in Vietnam is a serious public health problem if not being addressed seriously. For every hour we spend on OneVietnam Network, there are 5 tobacco related deaths in Vietnam. Do you think Neil’s 10,000 deaths per year on the road is bad? Now, quadruple that number will give you a total estimated 40,000 caused by smoking, and this will increase to about 70,000 by 2033 if we don’t take an effective measure. Some experts even believe this figure could be much under-reported due to deaths outside of hospitals.

Khôi used to sit by Daddy after dinner watching him smoked. “Con h?n Cha là nhà có phúc.” Young Khôi would proudly imitate his every move, picked up his left over bud and started to put it in his mouth. Khôi was 4.

About half of 86 million adult males use tobacco in Vietnam. This makes the country one of the highest in the world (other countries are China, Malaysia and Laos). Young Vietnamese school boys start to pick up the habit of smoking from as early as 13 years of age. Up to half of all smokers will die prematurely from tobacco related diseases that include cancers, heart disease, stroke, birth defect, infertility, impotence (Yes gentlemen, how cool is that?), and many more. Ha Noi School of Public Health estimates the costs from cancer, circulatory, and respiratory diseases resulting from smoking is more than 75 million USD per year.

Now at the age of 21, Khôi already smokes an average of 1 and 1/2 packs a day. Today, however, being deeply sad about his father’s diagnosis of oral cancer, Khôi’s almost on his last cigarettes of the second pack. He needs a night out, so Khôi calls his girlfriend.

Although there are only 2 percents of the Vietnamese female population who smoke, second-hand smoking by these women also shares the same health risks mentioned above. A survey conducted by the Hanoi Medial University in 2005 shows that 2/3 of Vietnamese women and more than 60 percents of school children aged 13-15 years old are regularly exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke at home and in public places. Worldwide, of the more than 600,000 deaths caused every year by second-hand smoke, 64 percents occur in women.

Fortunately, there are already efforts by the Ministry of Health, World Health Organization (WHO) and World Lung Foundation (WLF) to raise awareness. In December 2004, Vietnam ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. It has banned all forms of advertising, increased taxes on cigarettes and last year added larger warning labels to packaging. From December 2009 to January 2010, the “Cigarettes are Eating You Alive” campaign was launched and spread through television, posters and the press. Beginning January 1st, 2010, smoking would be prohibited in all public spaces. In May, 2010, results from the survey of the “Cigarettes are Eating You Alive” revealed that 77 percents of Vietnamese people who had seen anti-smoking materials oppose being exposed to second-hand smoke in public places.

If we all wish Vietnam to be a better place in the future, then smoking is one problem must not be ignored.

“Mind if I smoke?” asks Khôi to his girlfriend, who sits on the other side of the table.
“Yes, Khôi. Please don’t!”

It is no surprise that smoking can cause numerous diseases.  The insult begins  in the mouth where smoke, heat, and carcinogenic products interact directly with oral tissues.  As the ad above points out, ‘Tobacco causes mouth disease’.

In particular, oral cancer can be one of the scariest and most debilitating of diseases linked to smoking.  The Oral Cancer Foundation reports that close to 36,000 Americans will be diagnosed with oral or pharyngeal cancer this year in addition to causing 8,000 deaths.  More startling is that of the 36,000 diagnosed, only half will be alive in 5 years.   Surprised?

We’re not there yet.

The death rate for oral cancer is higher than cancers which we hear more often about – cervical cancer, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or malignant melanoma (skin cancer).  Yet the puzzling thing is that oral cancer is … treatable.

Consider this:  “The death rate associated with this cancer is particularly high not because it is hard to discover or diagnose, but due to the cancer being routinely discovered late in its development.”

If smoking can lead to oral cancer, and oral cancer is treatable, what can we do to lower the death rate?  For starters, quitting is the most absolute best way to extend one’s life and prevent the onslaught of cancer formation.   Although it may take several decades of smoking for the accumulative damage to develop into cancer, tobacco use in all its forms is at the top of the list of risk factors in individuals over 50.   Statistics show that at least 75% of those diangosed at 50 and older are tabacco users.   New data are developing but have yet to be released.   The situation worsens when tobacco use is paired with heavy alcohol use,  leading to a synergistic effect that increases the risk of cancer development by 15 times.

Oral cancer is treatable if caught early.  To illustrate this point, imagine the oral mucosa as a multilayered cake that is rotting away from top to bottom.  The cake perhaps can be salvaged early on by removing the top layer that has rotted.  However, over time the cake will rot throughout rendering it unsalvagable.  Oral cancer is often discovered too late when the cancer has penetrated throughout the layers of the mucosa, enabling the cancer to metastasize or break free into the blood stream where it can spread to other locations.   When this event has occured, the outcome of treatment is very poor.

Patients often miss early signs because oral cancer can present without pain or symptoms (or symptoms that are not readily recognizable).  It is extremely important to receive annual check ups by your dentist.  Make sure that when you come in for your 6 month recall or cleaning, you are also receiving your oral cancer screening.

Maricopy Department of Public Health

WHO Viet Nam (http://www.wpro.who.int/vietnam)
VINACOSH (http://www.vinacosh.gov.vn/)
WORLD LUNG FOUNDATION (http://www.worldlungfoundation.org/)

http://www.clickkhongthuocla.vn

Oralcancerfoundation.org

Since the 2008 recession in the US is believed to be the result of a sub-prime mortgage crisis, many people are worried that the same situation is going to happen in Vietnam . There are many hot questions that come with this worry: Is it really a bubble? What caused such a rapid increase in price? When is it going to burst? How can I protect myself from it?

These questions seem short but they are very hard questions that require much thoughts. Personally, I don’t think anyone knows when the bubble is going to burst. But beside that, let’s see if this phenomenon really is a “bubble”?

When people talk about “bubble”, they are referring to a situation when assets are bought and sold at prices above their normal market price. But how do we know normal market price is “normal“? Actually, we don’t know. We only know whether the prices have been tampered with. To do this, economists simultaneously look at the time-graph of the loans interest rates and economy’s money stock. If the money stock stays constant over the years, the interest rates are at their natural level. However, if the money stock increases, the interest rates decrease and vice versa.

Wait, why so?

Well, think about it this way. When the central bank wants to increase the money stock, it does so by lending the money to the bankers. When the bankers have many loans on hand, they are willing to give them out at a lower interest rate to attract customers from other banks (but still keep a good level of profit due to a larger number of loans).

So what happens when the interest rates are lower than “normal”?

Lower interest rates mean cheaper houses! It’s time to buy, buy, and buy! And some people buy multiple houses as investments. This also means that the demand for loans is soaring up and and cause an increase the interest rates. The higher the interest rates, the more profitable it is to sell the houses the people bought at the lower interest rates. Unfortunately, many don’t realized that the increased money stock and lowered interest rates are distorting the price of investment. People start to mal-invest in long-term projects with irreversible decisions. This is the beginning of the “bubble”.

However, this phenomenon will ease out over time if the central bank stops putting money into the market.

But that’s not the case. Central banks usually change the money stock throughout the years, because when the interest rates are low, people buy, sell, and invest more. This means an increase in economic activities and a spike up in GDP. The chairmen of these central banks have a lot of incentive to “boost” the economy since they can ask for more budget next year. And of course, they “boost” the economy and the “bubble” at the same time.

Here’s the trillion dollars question: When do the “bubble” burst?

The burst comes when people can no longer sell their house at a ridiculous price and must lower their price. When they do so, they start a downward drift of housing prices. As a result, no one else wants to buy because they expect the price to drop further. BOOM! there’s the burst.

Also, when central banks see that the economy is growing “too fast” out of their expectations, they might tighten the money supply by withdrawing the loans from the bankers. This will raise the interest rates suddenly and can shock the home-investing folks. Again, BOOM!

Now, how applicable is this story to the case of Vietnam? I’d love to show you Vietnam’s money stock to illustrate the point. But that data is not available to me, so I’ll substitute it with an inflation graph. The reason is: when the money stock increases and people have more cash on hands, they are more generous in their purchases and drive up the price level. So, an inflation graph is an acceptable substitute:

As you can see, inflation has been on the rise in Vietnam since 2001, this suggests that the central bank of Vietnam might over-stimulated the economy. However, the drastic spike in 2008 actually eased out 2008 recession. How? Read this article of mine.

Please note that this is NOT the only driving force of the rising asset prices in Vietnam. Since China and India have been growing tremendously in the past decades, their demands have been driving raw materials prices up and contribute partly to rising prices. There are also the increase in the capital investment in Vietnam in recent years that cause some lowered interest rates.

Also, Vietnam’s financial system is not as complicated as the US. Vietnam doesn’t have a matrix of securitized mortgages yet. What do “securitized mortgages” even mean?

But, I’ll save those for another article : )

(source: EU Trade Commission – click for large size)

Also, GDP per capita has been growing and is currently at its highest level of $1051 (as of 2008). Note that the spike around 1987 is due to a major economic policy renovation “Doi Moi”  and the major jump started in 1992 is due the US lifting the trade embargo with Vietnam.

Vietnamese people are producing more ever year. They are also getting richer and have been consuming much more than ever. But have you ever wonder what is Vietnam selling and buying in the international market?

According to the EU Trade Commission, Vietnam’s exports to the EU comprises of 7.77 billion euros worth of goods. Among those, 24% are primary goods such as agricultural, fuels, & mining products. Of the others, 74% are manufactured goods including clothing (15.4%) and personal & household goods (34.5%).

Let’s take a look at Vietnam’s major trading partners:

(source: EU Trade Commission)

and also Vietnam’s account balance:

(source: EU Trade Commission)

As observed from the account balance graph, Vietnam’s is currently running a trade deficit (-7.8% of GDP in 2009). However, we can also see that Vietnam’s total volume of trade is growing consistently over the past 5 years, despite the major world wide recession in 2008. There is a minor drop in exports of 2009, however, due to the drop in the global demand for goods and services.

The future is hopeful for Vietnam and it is still among the fastest growing economies with projected GDP growth of 6% in 2010.