Former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, the "designer" of innovation and integration

That is the sharing of former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan about former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai. According to Mr. Vu Khoan, looking back at the 9-year term, former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai is a person with both heart and vision and always puts the interests of the country and the people above all else.

In the field of foreign affairs and international integration, the official visit to the United States by former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, the first Prime Minister of Vietnam, is considered a historic visit, contributing to untangling the knots in Vietnam-US relations, helping to turn the two countries from enemies to friends and officially building a new position for Vietnam in international relations.

PV:Mr. Vu Khoan, you worked with former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai for many years. Sharing with the press, you often said that former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was the “foremander” and “designer”. Why do you call him that?

Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan:I call him that because he left many marks. I see two things that stand out, the first is that he was a person who made great contributions to the implementation and deployment of the Renovation policy proposed by our Party in 1986. The second mark is that he directly contributed a lot to the process of economic integration in particular and international integration in general.

The renovation process in our country started from the demands of the masses. The night before the Renovation, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai worked in Ho Chi Minh City, from Vice Chairman of the city and then Chairman of the city in charge of economy. He grasped the trend and was one of the people who built the policy for reform in Ho Chi Minh City.

He then moved to the State Planning Commission, then served as Deputy Prime Minister and finally Prime Minister. Throughout that process, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai participated in the formation and design of the Renovation policy, turning it into laws, policies, mechanisms and organizations to implement it.

Regarding international integration, he was also the first person to participate in the opening process. I remember the first time I went with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in 1991-1992, at that time there was an international donor conference in Paris, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was the head of the delegation, and I was the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs at that time.

That was the first breakthrough to the outside world, opening a very important channel to attract international ODA capital. After that, I went on a business trip with Prime Minister Phan Van Khai to Japan, to many places.

In 1998, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was also the first Prime Minister to directly chair the ASEAN Summit in Hanoi, paving the way for Cambodia to join ASEAN. He was also the one who directly directed the negotiations with the United States, so when I went to the Ministry of Trade, the first thing Prime Minister Phan Van Khai told me was how to sign it.

After that, the historic visit to the US by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai also opened a new phase for international integration and created the premise to prepare for APEC 2006 in Vietnam. And at that APEC 2006 conference, the US concluded WTO negotiations with us and granted us Most Favored Nation status.

PV:I remember former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was the one who introduced many economic reforms such as eliminating sub-licenses, encouraging young businesses to develop... Can you share specific stories with readers?

Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan:That's right. Those are the great things that former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai did in his position as Permanent Deputy Prime Minister and as Prime Minister.

In the 90s, the Doi Moi process was carried out, bringing about some remarkable results. However, the bottlenecks began to appear, and if they were not resolved, it would be impossible to move forward. This was the general policy, but the person who grasped the proposal for implementation was Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.

He also told me personally that if we do not reform state-owned enterprises, do not create conditions for economic sectors to develop, and do not promote businesses, it will be very difficult.

Prime Minister Phan Van Khai also assigned me to support young businesses and form the Young Business Association to promote young businesses. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai also directed other colleagues to draft the Enterprise Law because in the Doi Moi policy, we propose a multi-sector economy.

What legal basis do private enterprises have? Thanks to the great contribution of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in building the Enterprise Law, creating favorable conditions for private enterprises to develop, the 12th Party Congress has raised it to a very important driving force.

Prime Minister Phan Van Khai also contributed many ideas to the 2002 Foreign Investment Law, opening an additional channel for the second economic sector, foreign-invested enterprises.

Thus, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai did three things: reforming state-owned enterprises, opening channels for private enterprises, and further expanding foreign enterprises, along with institutional innovation and administrative reform.

It must be said that Prime Minister Phan Van Khai made great efforts in administrative reform. Of course, there were things that former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai did that were not collusion, but in any case, they were the economic development levers that helped us stand firm in the regional economic crisis.

PV:He said that the economic policies of the late Prime Minister Phan Van Khai helped the Vietnamese economic boat not to "capsize" during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998....

Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan:That's right. I went on many business trips with former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, meeting with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong. During the meetings, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai discussed and asked how other countries handled the crisis, to learn from the world's experiences, apply them to domestic reality and propose effective measures.

Among them, his most prominent measure was to stabilize the macro economy, although the biggest imbalance at that time was import and export. In return, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai proposed the policy of "domestic stimulus", thanks to which our country's economy did not fluctuate with the GDP at that time being around 7%. Foreign exchange reserves even increased. Basically, our country went through that crisis. And that was the contribution of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.

PV:He mentioned one of the two very strong marks that former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai left, which was bringing Vietnam into international integration. I still remember that during his first visit to the US in 2005 (he was also the first Vietnamese Prime Minister to officially visit the US), it was also another step that created a new mark for Vietnam in international integration and building Vietnam-US relations later on....

Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan:That's right. The mark in the Vietnam-US relationship must be mentioned in two things. The first thing is the negotiation for the two sides to sign the Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), right at the time when Mr. Phan Van Khai was Prime Minister.

When we negotiated, the US was the world's number one economic power, and followed WTO standards. When the US side gave us the US draft, there were many things we did not know and we conducted the negotiations under the direct guidance of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.

In 1999, negotiations were basically completed and Vietnam and the US planned to sign the Agreement with the presence of President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, but at the last minute there were problems.

The following year, I was transferred to the Ministry of Trade, and the first thing Prime Minister Phan Van Khai assigned me was “no matter what, you complete the remaining negotiation procedures” so that we could sign. And under the direction of the Politburo, directly by the Prime Minister, we completed the negotiations and signed in July 2000. That agreement was a huge boost to open up the market for Vietnam.

The second event was Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's visit to the US in 2005. That trip was the driving force to conclude negotiations with the US and from then until 2006, we concluded negotiations to join the WTO.And only on that basis, Vietnam can enjoy the Most Favored Nation status, which the US calls Regular Trade Status, then we can have equality and enter the world market.

PV:Sir, looking back at Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's first visit to the US in 2005, how do you assess the significance of this visit for the future of Vietnam-US relations?

Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan:First of all, I must say that it was a trip of strategic significance in terms of scale and the longest in terms of time, the most complicated, and the most stressful in terms of operations.

Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was under a lot of psychological pressure and responsibility. That is why I saw that the Prime Minister put all his effort into that trip, both mentally and physically, to make that trip a success.

Late at night, I went to the Prime Minister's office and saw him still busy reading documents. I told him, "Everything is well prepared, don't worry. I believe you will handle it well." But he still studied the documents. I saw the Prime Minister working hard all the time. In one day, he met countless people, went to countless places... Then at that time, the forces against Vietnam held protests and caused a lot of trouble.

In short, the visit has many meanings, creating a legitimate foundation for Vietnam. For the first time, the Vietnam-US Joint Statement was built on the basis of mutual respect, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, and equal and mutually beneficial cooperation.

This was the first time a Vietnam-US Joint Statement was issued between the two leaders, a very important milestone of historical significance. Before that, it was only the normalization of Vietnam-US relations.

Second, the visit has resolved many problems in the relationship between the two countries. Both sides have begun to resolve the consequences of the war. Economically, there is BTA and then there is WTO.Politically, there was an official visit to the US by Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and then Mr. Bush returned the visit. In particular, Vietnam and the US had exchanges on national security and defense.

However, there is an invisible but extremely important result, which is that Vietnam's position is completely different. Vietnam has established relations with all 5 permanent members of the UN Security Council. This can be said to be the peak of our country's foreign affairs activities.

PV:And it creates a new position for Vietnam in the Vietnam-US relationship in general and in international relations in the future...

Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan:That's right. That trip and the Vietnam-US relationship are what add to the foundation of Vietnam's position in the international arena.

PV:Yes, in the story about former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai visiting the US in 2005, people mentioned Prime Minister Phan Van Khai reading a speech in the Oval Office...

Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan:There are things that are easy for outsiders to talk about, but only those involved can understand the internal situation, the pressure and the stress. The Vietnam-US relationship has gone through many difficult years, at that time Mr. Phan Van Khai was the first Prime Minister to officially visit the US.

In the meeting with President G. Bush, every word and every expression needed to be carefully considered because it could affect national interests. Moreover, this was the first time that two leaders of two hostile countries met before the international community, the responsibility was very heavy. "All beginnings are difficult", the person who shouldered that responsibility was the one who took the lead and took responsibility, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai fulfilled that responsibility very well.

Another memory is that Prime Minister Phan Van Khai and I met with the American cabinet, the two of us met from morning to night. In each meeting, we gained sympathy from our friends. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's attitude was very humble but open, so he created sympathy and won the hearts of many people.

PV:If you could say one thing about former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, what would you say?

Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan:In short, he is a visionary and a very dedicated person. Dedicated means dedicated to his work and to the people. During his work, he was always concerned about poverty reduction, schools, healthcare, diseases and floods.He often shared that with us. He was very considerate of his comrades, colleagues, and brothers.

In particular, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai trusted his colleagues very much when he assigned them to take charge of work. He had a very friendly and humble attitude, never showing off. Another very impressive trait was that when Prime Minister Phan Van Khai asked to resign early and no longer participate in the Central Committee, in his speech before the National Assembly, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai frankly admitted his shortcomings and frankly stated his concerns. I think that this is a person with a lot of heart to dare to do that.

PV:Thank you, Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan./.