Russian expert: Mr. Phan Van Khai is concerned about the country and wants to cooperate with Russia

Former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. Photo: AP

Mr. Phan Van Khai lived a long, difficult and beautiful life, leaving behind gratitude not only to his fellow countrymen, but also to those he had the opportunity to meet in his life.

Among them was economist Marina Trigubenko, who trained dozens of specialists in Vietnam, South Korea, Mongolia and other Eastern countries. The Russian scientist recalled her meetings with Phan Van Khai in the early 1980s, when she headed the Center for Socialist Countries and Cuba at the World Institute of Sociological Studies, part of the Soviet Academy of Sciences.

Mrs. Trigubenko met Mr. Phan Van Khai in 1980 at the large Soviet-Vietnamese symposium on the prospects for the development of the Soviet Far East, held in Khabarovsk. And the following year, a large delegation of Soviet scientists and leaders of the Far East regions and territories came to Ho Chi Minh City to introduce the potential of the region, to discuss the project of cooperation with Vietnam in exploiting the endless wealth of the Far East. In this meeting, Mr. Phan Van Khai, deputy head of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, took an active part.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kuala Lumpur during the ASEAN summit. Photo: AFP

"I remember him as a man of work, knowledgeable, open-minded and democratic. He was very concerned about the country and understood that Vietnam had to move towards a market economy and develop relations with other countries. After graduating from the Plekhanov Academy in Moscow, Mr. Phan Van Khai wanted to expand and strengthen trade and economic cooperation with the Soviet Union. He understood the important role and great benefits that Vietnam could gain if it participated in the development of the Soviet Far East. It is a pity that this did not happen. But I remember the future leader of the Vietnamese government as a person who was concerned about the future of his country and knew how to build that future," Ms. Marina Trigubenko recalled.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Phradkov in Hanoi. Photo: Sputnik

Leading expert on Vietnam's economy, Director of the Center for Vietnam and ASEAN Studies of the Asia-Africa Institute,Professor Vladimir Mazyrincalled Phan Van Khai "the architect of Vietnam's market reform". He noted that it was during the period when Phan Van Khai held the position of Deputy Prime Minister, and then Prime Minister, that the basic conditions for the operation of the market mechanism in the Vietnamese economy were built, aiming to develop private initiative, as well as integrate into the world economy. Phan Van Khai is one of the most outstanding representatives of the reform movement in the Vietnamese leadership.

"I was a witness to the event when Mr. Phan Van Khai was in the position of Prime Minister, the heads of key departments in different fields in the Vietnamese economy studied Singapore's successful experience in the field of combining state management and private enterprises, market mechanisms, and then applied this experience at home.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai opens the annual session of the National Assembly in Hanoi. Photo: AFP

As we can see, even now all this is working wonderfully. The difficult and complex work that Mr. Phan Van Khai has been pursuing continuously and vigorously, the development of business laws, the transition from an administrative economy, negotiations on Vietnam's accession to the WTO... all of this has brought great results and is the key to Vietnam's dynamic and confident movement towards success and prosperity," - the Russian expert affirmed.