You’ve got ma-.. Erhm.. Notification! Is Deficit bad for the Economy?

By on July 28, 2010 • Topics: Current Affairs

What started out as an informal internal message among team members about the iPhone 4 leak in Vietnam became a deep discussion about Vietnam’s trade deficit.  While the contents of the discussion is extremely interesting, something else also stood out – the way the discussion took place demonstrated the social phenomenon within our world today.

Meeting places for vibrant discussions on topics such as economics, science, politics, and culture have been around since the ancient world.  Recall that the Greeks used agoras, or “place of assembly” to  hear announcements or engage in debates.   The Romans had the forum and the American colonists had the towncenter.  While live gatherings still persist in today’s society, many lively and important conversations are occuring in digital forums and webspace.

The evolution into the digital age gave birth to Web 2.0 and social media.  What exactly do these two things mean? Consider the following two definitions:

What is Social Media:

Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. .

What is Web 2.0:

The term “Web 2.0″ (2004-present) is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. …

Below is the conversation that took place among James, Quyen, Neil, and Phong about Vietnam’s trade deficit.  Some may argue that deficit is a sign of poor economic growth while others may argue such deficit is a positive economic sign.   What is your position on Vietnam’s trade deficit?  Please share your thoughts below.   Lastly, if you’ve encountered interesting debates elsewhere, please do share them with us!


The Author: Brian Luong

Brian Luong is the editor-in-chief of Vietnam Talking Points. Brian is currently pursuing a DMD-MBA joint degree program at Harvard School of Dental Medicine and Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts. Extended Bio.

  • http://income-tax-calculator.org income tax calculator

    do u have a twitter

  • http://www.chiasetintuc.org Khanh Pham

    Interesting conversation! I’m curious about why we’d want an FDI higher than 20 or 30%. As you point out, that’s one of the highest rates in the world. As Quyen points out, it makes us more vulnerable to foreign investor shifts of opinion.

    If VN wants to control its own destiny, it seems to me that it needs to be able to determine where it wants to put its funds. You can’t determine where foreign investment goes, though you can i suppose direct it with incentives.

    I think we need to have an honest conversation about what KIND of development VN wants. is it development to let outside investors build a large shopping mall that will serve only the business elite?

    i think VN needs to see beyond the statistics. Instead of just measuring FDI, and GDP, what about measuring the number of buses added to a public transportation system which could serve everyone? Not everything that increases GDP is good.

    i have a question: when VN negotiates with foreign investors, how much leverage do they have? if they make demands, like you have to set aside 10% of your housing for affordable housing or whatever, is that seen as government red-tape and “VN being difficult to work with”?

  • Ananymous

    I think it’s ok for investors to shift their opinions. After all, investors want to invest in the most productive places. This will give the good working people in Vietnam a better incentive to be on top of their competitive edge.

    When you mention Vietnam, do you mean the ‘Vietnamese government’? I think any government has not been as effective as private business in figuring out what is the most productive use of a resource.

    I’d rather see the people show their own competitiveness instead of the government manipulating the Vietnamese market to trick investors into bad investments.

    In terms of what kind of investment? Let’s the market figures that out! Government has not helped since the beginning of history.

    I mean this in a good way :)