Australia to pay for Vietnam anti-corruption training
Updated
Australia will provide up to $A500,000 to help train senior members of Vietnam's Communist Party and government officials in anti-corruption prevention and detection methods.
Presenter: Karon Snowdon
Speakers: Professor Tran Van Hoa from the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies at Australia's Victoria University; Dr Phong Nguyen, Australian Spokesman for Viet Tran, the Vietnam Reform Party; Stephen Smith, Australian Foreign Minister.
SNOWDON: It's the first but it might not be the last training program to be run in Australia for up to 25 Communist Party and Government officials from Vietnam.
At a cost of 500,000 dollars its a small amount to throw at a big problem, according to Victoria University Professor, Tran Van Hoa.
TRAN: It's a symbolic gesture because it is a small amount. So it depends on the effectiveness of the training program and what sort of official is included in the training program.
SNOWDON: Stephen Smith made his first trip to Vietnam this week as Foreign Minister, marking 35 years of bi-lateral diplomatic relations.
He says his talks in Hanoi involved expanding cooperation in the international arenas of trade, security and the policing of the narcotics trade.
SMITH: When people look at the relationship between Australia and Vietnam they look at our trade and investment and development assistance relationship, not enough is made of our security, defence and police cooperation arrangements and both governments and both nations are looking forward to enhancing those.
SNOWDON:Australia is one of Vietnam's biggest aid donors, providing 90 million dollars in development aid this year and is keen to see more private investment in one of Asia's fastest growing economies.
Corruption has been a long standing barrier to foreign investment, along with generally inadequate regulation and rule of law.
Stephen Smith's press release about the funding for anti-corruption training noted : " (The) support reflects the key role the Communist Party of Vietnam plays in anti-corruption policy development and capacity building within government."
Dr Phong Nguyen is the Australian spokesman for Viet-Tan, the Vietnam Reform Party, an international group working for democratic change in Vietnam.
Dr Phong believes the lack of press freedom in Vietnam is the biggest hindrance to the fight against corruption.
PHONG: Basically there was a major scandal in 2006 involving the Ministry of Transport, and the scandal was called PMU-18 scandal which involved nearly two billion dollars of funds from various countries including Australia.
SNOWDON:And the two journalists who wrote about that lost their jobs, I think.
PHONG: Exactly, two of them were arrested. And this is the thing that we are crying out for because these journalists will not allowed to write about corruption scandals particularly involving government officials. So if we are going to train Communist members then I can't see where and how we are going to improve the corruption problem. Corruption needs to be targeted by independent groups, and most importantly to allow the media to write and do stories.
SNOWDON:So will this be a waste of money on Australia's part?
PHONG: Well this sort of training are not targeted to resolve or have a good structure to have a good outcome then I think it posibly can waste our funds. I would look at funding independent groups to promote freedom of media to investigate the PMU-18 scandal to see where that fund is going to. I mean that was involving our money as well.
SNOWDON: Professor Tran Van Hoa, from the Centre for Strategic Economic Studies at Victoria University says as elsewhere in Asia corruption is entrenched.
He believes the government is committed to dealing with the problem.
TRAN: The fight will be a long one. But as far as the government is concerned it is aware of the corruption problem and is trying to eliminate it or minimise it as much as they can, as soon as they can.
