Vietnam in 13 photos: Landscape after COVID-19
A photostory on surprising policy changes in authoritarian Vietnam
COVID-19 brings surprising policy changes in authoritarian Vietnam
Vietnam contains the virus outbreak comparatively well: the number of infected is below 300 without a single case of death
Country’s economy on idle, the growth prospects lowered
For years, Vietnam’s Communist Party has been losing its legitimacy as the sole representative of the nation’s interests. In demonstrations across many provinces, the party was rebuked as a lackey of China.
As a single-party state, with omnipresent military and security people, Vietnam has been able to respond promptly to COVID-19, by enacting the strict measures.
Despite sharing a border with China and having limited healthcare resources, Vietnam has fewer than 300 cases of infected people.
As early as March, Vietnam started to lock down whole cities and specific areas in a city. Traveling between cities became highly restricted. Enjoying a low number of confirmed cases, Vietnam entered nationwide lockdown on April 1, the far faster and more decisive response than that seen in Europe and the USA.
What could be the country’s prospects after the COVID-19?
Before the COVID-19, Vietnam was on a trajectory to become a strong regional power. In the long term, the South China Sea with the port of Da Nang could be connected with the Indian Ocean. This is seen as a final solution to lower shipping time and possibly reduce the Southeast-Asian’s dependence on trade with China.
The city of Da Nang: 90-kilometre-long seacoast and extensive fishing zones allow Party Committee to draw ambitious plans for the sea-based sectors. The target is to modernize fishermen and achieve a 10 percent share in its gross regional domestic product by 2025, and 15 percent by 2030.
But there is no guarantee that the natural resources will be exploited sustainably. In 2016, the neighboring provinces saw marine life disaster of unprecedented sizes, causing a number of protests, which the government tried to suppress. In the eyes of commentators, it looked like Vietnam’s Chernobyl moment.
According to government figures, 3,000 businesses have closed in the first two months of 2020. Dozens of hotels and resorts needed to shut down due to the drop in tourism.
Vietnam’s government has made $1.1 billion available to pump into the economy but analysts predict the money will dry out soon.
The projected economic costs have also been widely accepted by the population.
Businesses including banks, restaurants, and apartment complexes have also implemented their own screening procedures.
Vietnam, remaining strongly agricultural, gets stuffed with high-rise buildings housing Chinese-oriented hotels and business centers. Average citizens cannot dream to move into these modern structures. Nevertheless, Vietnam lifted more than 45 million people out of poverty in the last twenty years.
With many investments stalled, Vietnam is already feeling the impact of the deadly impact of the Covid-19. Analysts predict that country’s GDP may drop by ca. 1% for this year but the government does not want to revise its forecasts. The tourism sector as an important pillar of the country’s economic development contributes six percent to the country’s GDP. Before the Coronavirus spread, the rising number of visitors has been a reason to take pride in the communist party’s reforms which were meant to change the country’s image.
Vietnam is the world’s third-largest rice exporter. In an effort to prevent food shortages, the country has put in place the restrictions on exports of agriculture products. It also considers the extension thereof for the rest of the year.
Over the years, the government has appropriated land for the reasons of infrastructure, urbanization, and economic development.
In Vietnam, the Constitution does not recognize the private ownership of land. All land was nationalized and the wording of the 1988 Land Law decreed that land is owned by the people under the management of the state.
Now, the government gets renewed support due to its success in containing the virus. This may distract people’s attention from the human rights abuses.
The party officials have been highly transparent with the public during the crisis.
The country’s response to the outbreak has received international recognition, including from the World Health Organization and World Economic Forum, for its comprehensive, low-cost model of disease prevention.
Before the outbreak, the regular people needed to participate in the gatherings and bow to the Communist symbols.
In recent years, however, despite being officially committed to the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, the government has funded the construction of splendid Buddhist temples in public spaces, making it de facto state religion. This change of policy won applause in the West.
Despite this, ethnic minorities living in Vietnam’s countryside have been enjoying a much less favorable policy. Montagnards, indigenous, largely Christianized tribal people from the central highlands suffer persecution for their religious beliefs.
For one thousand years Vietnam was under China’s occupation, which shaped its culture in all manner of ways.
However, Vietnam’s government did not follow the Chinese disinformation policy on Covid-19. Instead, it was committed to inspections and supervision and banned all visitors from China. This boosted the party’s support and kept the number of virus cases low.
Vietnam introduced ‘fake news’ fines for coronavirus misinformation. The country is below Sudan in World Press Freedom Index, ranked at 176 out of 180. It is the social media that plays an increasingly vital role in discussing relevant subjects. The Internet serves as an outlet for political activism, and Vietnam has one of the highest rates of social-media. Notwithstanding, the party seeks ways of limiting social activism, by drafting laws aimed at news sites and blogs with dangerous content.
The crackdown on critics has been executed in line with a penal code prohibiting “making, storing, disseminating or propagandizing materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”.
As a result, the number of prisoners of conscience has peaked up by a third, as reported by Amnesty International.
Having almost 100 million people under its roof, the whole Vietnamese powerhouse faces serious hindrances in sectors such as health, land management, and natural resources. The country’s development is undeniably constrained by the limitations of the authoritarian regime, which regularly tramps on human rights.
Robert Bociaga ( www.robert-bociaga.com ) is a traveling photojournalist specializing in International Affairs. He is based in South East Asia and focuses on economic and social issues around culture change, urbanization, political marginalization, poverty, religion, and destruction of nature. He holds a master’s degree in Law.
