Investments

Lots of construction of high rises in Vietnam.

Coastal cities are developing a tourist trade.

Meandering rivers around Saigon.

Gas station for cars and tens of millions of motorbikes.

Every byway has little shops of food, drink, and motorbike repair - examples of individual entrepreneurship.

Elementary school in Qui Nhon.

Vietnam Air. Transportation and tourist trade is booming.

Rice growing is the main agrarian activity.


Vietnam has a good deal of foreign investors involved in internal development. I guess that’s why it’s called a developing country. When flying back from Qui Nhon to Saigon on Vietnam Airways for only $50, about the same distance from Cedar Rapids to Chicago, I saw what looked like a state-of-the-art dam holding back a huge reservoir north of Saigon. Water is a commodity of which they have plenty. (See picture of meandering rivers around Saigon).

The largest foreign investments come from Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea with 20 billion, 18 billion, 17 billion, and 16.5 billion USD, respectively, as of January 25, 2009. USA companies have invested about 8 billion USD in the last 40 years. These are just 5 of the list of 84 nations that have poured money into development ventures in Vietnam. China has had 628 projects undertaken to the tune of about 2 billion USD.

Here are some deals that have been signed with foreign construction companies: The Bac Lieu Town People’s Committee has contracted with a company to build a new residential town with a population of 16,000 people along Highway 1A @ $17.64 million. The Danang Department of Transport has inked a deal with a construction company to build a new bridge on the Han River @ $67.64 million. The Binh Duong People’s Committee is having a new 28 kilometer (18 mile) road built to connect them to Ho Chi Minh City for $41.17 million. There are also hundreds of thousands of private entrepreneurs all over Vietnam. (See general scenes throughout VN)

You would never know that Vietnam is a communist country. All these deals could have been realized without having to make a down payment of 50,000 lives. It seems outrageous, doesn’t it? Why, oh why did we have to create a war in Vietnam? George Orwell's main message in 1984 was that in an oligarchy, which some say we have, that is a wealthy few at the top controlling events, wields power just for power's sake. We started a war in Vietnam because we had the military might to do so. Does this sound like George Bush and Iraq? Let's stop trying to throw our weight around in the world to feed a military-industrial complex. We must create jobs that do not support the cult of militarism.