The tunnel in the Youtube video, half of the time is blocked and not usuable because of flooding. All these infrastructures are foreign built and foreign owned. The nice houses in Q2 and Q4 (showned in the video) are owned by Viet Kieu and foreigners. What average Vietnamese can afford those ?

Don’t feed into the lies and propaganda. Look at the FACTS!

The forecast for 2009 was 6.5% GDP growth. It is not going to meet that number. Growth is going to be around 4.2% year over year. The number also leaves out $8-9 billion dollars in remittances from Viet Kieu. Just another year of missing forecast again and tricking gullible Viet Kieu and foreign investors to pump into the communist cronyism and corrupt system.

Communist Three Non-Communist Four

Per Capita Income* $2,167.00 $7,075.00

Infant Mortality** 53.27 21.78

Life Expectancy 63.1 Years 71.8 Years

% of Population
Below Poverty Line 26.8 15.7

* Purchasing Power Parity Method
** Per 1,000 Live Births

Nothing new here. In 2005 Hanoi economist Le Dang Doanh cited corruption and single-party control as a reason for Viet Nam’s lowly economic status. He cited comparative data showing Viet Nam has regressed in relation to, for example, Thailand and So. Korea:

Viet Nam’s Per Capita Income as Percentage of

1950 1999

Thailand 80.5 20.0

So. Korea 85.5 11.0

From:

http://www.fva.org/2005/03Mar/story02.htm

This, after 24 years of ‘peace.’ Hanoi is now,, sort of, ‘catching up.’ It’s most recent per capita income of $2,600.00 is 32.9% of Thailand’s $7,900.00, meaning at present rates and levels Viet Nam’s per capita income will equal Thailand’s in another 55-60 years, or 90-100 years after ‘the war ended’ in 1975.

Bears mention that Hanoi ranks 166th out of 175 countries, surveyed in 2009, measuring press freedom …or lack thereof:

http://www.fva.org/2005/03Mar/story02.htm

Average ranking and overall index score (higher the number, the less press freedom/greater oppression) of the communist three and non-communist four:

Communist 3 Non-Communist 4

Place 151 121

Index Score 69.6 38.76

This information involved search time of perhaps 45 minutes, something a ‘reporter’ could easily do. Question is, why don’t they do it? Their brethren journalists are being hammered after all.

As this is written retired NVA officer Tran Anh Kim is beginning his 5 1/2 year prison sentence for involvement in pro-democracy activities. He joins Le Thi Cong Nhan, Nguyen Van Dai, Fr. Nguyen Van Ly, scores of Montagnards, and many others jailed for ‘subversion’ and Orwellian ‘anti-state plots.’ Others, including attorney Le Cong Dinh, scheduled for trial on similar charges later this month.
In the meantime, Sec. State Hillary Clinton recently lauded U.S. ten-fold increase in trade with Viet Nam in past decade, neglecting to mention huge U.S. current account trade deficit with Viet Nam, meaning Hanoi benefits in terms of jobs more than does U.S.