Former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was always strong in reform and determined to integrate.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Dr. Le Dang Doanh, economic expert, former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), member of the Research Board of former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, about his feelings towards the Prime Minister known as: Talking less than doing.

In 2005, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was the first senior Vietnamese leader to meet US President George W. Bush at the White House in the United States.

Sir, as someone who worked side by side with many experts and scholars to help former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in the early days when Prime Minister Khai's Government first took office, could you please tell us your thoughts about the former Prime Minister?

- What I remember most is that former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was quite close to the professional community and professional leaders. Mr. Khai studied economics in the Soviet Union, held positions in the General Department of the State Planning Commission, worked as a Department Head and then went to the South to work in the Central Economic Department, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, then went to Hanoi to work as Vice Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Deputy Prime Minister), then Prime Minister after Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet left office.

Since Mr. Khai took office, he has faced many challenges. In September 1997, the Asian Financial Crisis spread, causing heavy losses in Thailand, South Korea and several other Asian countries. Prime Minister Khai's government was successful in combating and providing solutions to prevent the crisis from spreading, such as controlling inflation, and having very reasonable fiscal and credit policies.

These temporary and in-depth measures later helped maintain Vietnam's economy at that time, although its growth was low at 4.8%, it was still good growth, not suffering the harmful effects like other countries such as South Korea and Thailand.

The economic achievement of former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai that many people mention is the promulgation of the Enterprise Law in 1999, which is the basis and foundation for amending economic policies later. How do you evaluate the economic management policy of the former Prime Minister?

- Former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai always had a strong spirit of reform and determination to integrate. He himself presented the Enterprise Law to the National Assembly for promulgation in 1999 and he himself defended the Enterprise Law before the Politburo and the National Assembly.

However, when the Law was passed, ministries and localities did not implement it because many places had their power cut off, leading to delays and procrastination.

I see that, with the promulgation of the Enterprise Law 1999, for the first time, there is a decree in Vietnam that has stripped the power of the Provincial Presidents. In which, the signature of the Provincial President is required for the establishment of enterprises. Instead of binding regulations, the Law allows people to do whatever the State does not prohibit.

This is just one example, there are many other powers and old habits that have been cut. In fact, the process of eliminating these problems is very difficult, facing a lot of pressure and opposition from provincial chairmen, even leaders of ministries and branches.

Inheriting the drastic economic management views from the late Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai led the country's economy to be considered "warm inside, peaceful outside" such as developing the Economic Advisory Group into a Research Board or proactively proposing to sign a trade cooperation agreement with the US. What is your view on this issue?

- At that time, after the Law on Enterprises was issued, for the first time the Prime Minister established a Government Working Group on implementing the Law and reducing sub-licenses, in which Mr. Tran Xuan Gia was the Head of the Group, I was the Deputy Head, and Mr. Uong Chu Luu, Pham Viet Muon... were members.

We worked and examined and discovered many regulations that restricted the rights of businesses, such as: typing requires permission every 3 months; collecting scrap paper and drawing portraits requires permission; private businesses are not allowed to build 20-ton barges...

We discovered nearly 600 sub-licenses and submitted them to the Prime Minister. Mr. Khai then signed an order to abolish 286 sub-licenses (nearly half of the sub-licenses) and caused the private economy to explode later.

Prime Minister Khai presented the Draft Law on Vietnam - US Bilateral Trade (BTA) officially signed in 2001 and Prime Minister Khai was also the first Vietnamese leader to visit the United States, meeting President Bush at the White House in 2005, opening up new and broad prospects for cooperation between Vietnam and the United States.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Khai, Vietnam's economy not only grew strongly but also stably. He also laid the foundation for reforms to reduce the intervention of the State, ministries and branches in the economy, gradually forming a market economy, expanding freedom for businesses. These views and legacies have left a legacy for the next generation of leaders.

What about the activities of the Prime Minister's Research Board at that time, sir? It is known that this is one of the "machines" that effectively assists the Prime Minister in regulating the economy in the short, medium and long term?

- Mr. Khai is a person who respects and understands the opinions of his economic experts. Since he became Deputy Prime Minister under the Government of Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, he has been very interested in the legacy of Prime Minister Kiet, the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Group, and he has also been quite close to the economic experts.

After becoming Prime Minister, Mr. Khai promoted the Advisory Group to the Prime Minister's Research Board, working at 10 Le Hong Phong. As a Prime Minister, he is very knowledgeable and respects the opinions of experts, especially those who speak against economic policies or viewpoints.

Even the documents that the Permanent Deputy Prime Minister submitted to the Prime Minister for signing and promulgation, the Prime Minister still carefully sent the documents to the Research Committee for review, and returned them to the Prime Minister at 6:30 the next morning.

We worked with a team of experts, redacted the document, and then explained it on 3 A4 pages with the signatures of the Head and Deputy Head of the Department, and sent it to Prime Minister Khai for review, and the Prime Minister requested that it be revised. These were small matters, but the pressure of management at that time was very stressful, but the Prime Minister overcame it.

Even before, they proposed to build National Highway 1A into a BOT road with toll collection. But at that time, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai immediately rejected the above proposal and requested that BOT must be done on new roads, not on single roads. That principle was raised during Prime Minister Khai's time.

I remember one time our Research Committee had lunch at Le Hong Phong, and Dr. Vu Quang Viet came back from abroad to meet us. Surprisingly, that day, Prime Minister Khai attended with all of us. At that time, he (Prime Minister Phan Van Khai) spoke very frankly about his difficulties when the opinions that experts suggested but when the Prime Minister presented to higher levels did not receive consensus.

It can be said that the history of Vietnam's economy must recognize Mr. Khai as a Prime Minister with many ideas and achievements in reform and integration. A successor who built a solid economic foundation so that Vietnam can integrate and develop with the regional and international economy in the future.

Thank you very much expert!

Nguyen Tuyen