An essay about VietNam

Few must (can) deny that, alongside a substantial influx of US investment, (the article 'the' should be
included here, or so I thought) Jaanese strong sirit of reconstruction after defeat in !!II has
brought about "#he Jaanese economic miracle$% #hat sirit was artly encasulated by the vigorous
motto& "Study the !est, catch the !est and outdo the !est$% If one loo's from today(s ersective,
es from the view of a )ietnamese youngster li'e me, that motto, however, need (I would go for
'needs') a little amending& "Study the rest, catch the rest and do your best$
!hy "the !est$ for Jaan only and "the rest$ for )iet*am+ #he foremost reason is obvious& the
Jaanese erceived outdoing the !est as their sureme goal as they had been militarily defeated by
!estern countries, and to some extent, they deserately long (longed) to "ta'e revenge$
inan (the) economic front % ,ow about )iet*am - a develoing country+ Unarguably, it(s wise not to
study only !estern countries but also every other country(to study not only !estern countries but
also%%%)% .egardless of being develoed or not (#here's ractically nothing wrong with this hrase, but
I thin' 'develoment status' is more concise and sounds sohisticated), their features are still, more or
less, deserved (still deserve)to be observed and adoted% /essons can be drawn from our "gigantic$
neighbor 0hina with a glorious economic growth rate which ran'ed the world's highest1 from one of
the reutated 2sia(s "Four #igers$3 South 4orea 3 with its miraculous 5 formidable 673year eriod of
transforming a devastated ost3war economy into the most dynamic one (2re you sure+ #his sounds a
little bit extreme, I'm afraid%) in the world1 from Singaore with its engrossing 5 uni8ue history when
a small 5 bac'ward fishing village turned to become (into) a country boasting its (the) most active
and develoed economy in 2sia (#here you have it 3 4orea is the most dynamic economy in the world1
Singaore is the most active economy in 2sia% Something is not 8uite right, is it+) % /essons lie in front
of us and still can (can still) be drawn easily%
!hy "do the best$+ I am a ragmatic and down3to3earth sort of (redundant) erson%
.ecently the statistics has revealed a shoc'ing 5 candid truth& )iet*am needs at least 9:; years to
catch u with that formerly fishing village Singaore, given that it now stos to develo (<y comment&
#his loo's li'e a conditional sentence, in which the condition 'Singaore not stos to develo' aears
extremely unli'ely 3 erhas ')ietnam would need%%%Singaore stoed%%%' will be a better choice here)%
#he same can be said about #hailand 3 a relatively rich nation& 6=3years in develoment to be as same
as (#his is more wordy, but I thin' the idea is exressed more clearly& assuming the current growth
rate is maintained, it would ta'e 6= years develoment for )ietnam to be as roserous as) the
resent #hailand -% 2dmittedly, the develoment ga between )iet*am and other 2S>2*
countries was (is) hard to bridge, not to mention the chance to "catch the !est$ (?lease be very
careful% #his structure seems to imly that 'the develoment ga between and other 2S>2* countries'
is the sub@ect of the action 'to catch the !est', which is aarently not what you wish to convey% 2
better way would be& It is hard to bridge the develoment ga%%, let alone 'catch the !est')% It is not
essimism (what is 'it'+) % 2cceting a roblem is one ste towards solving it% 0onceding this fact is
but a warning bell for all of us to get a feet (feet is, of all things, a lural nounA) on the ground after
being bombarded and self 3 satisfied with those "seemingly encouraging$ figures we are bound to
catch on #) or newsaers% !e reserve the rights to dream of "outdoing the !est$, but we shouldn(t
ma'e overstatement, set overambitious goals, without bowing to the (redundant) reality% Just do our
best and(ourBthe) laborious effort will ay off%
In summary, the Jaanese motto did insire me tremendously and let my imagination go wild for
a little (while)% ,owever, given )ietnam(s situation, as one of the country(s young generation (wrong
structure 3 you're a erson, not a generationA Cou can use 'art of the young generation') , I stand by
my belief that the motto should be revised to suit our situation best%
"#he Jaanese economic miracle$ of ('in' sounds more aroriate) the second half of the twentieth
century resulted both from substantial 2merican investment in Jaan(s rebuilding efforts and in (again,
I thin' this should be 'from'% #he strong sirit of reconstruction demonstrated by the Jaanese is the
cause of Jaan's miraculous economic growth, not the other way round%) the strong sirit of
reconstruction demonstrated by the Jaanese following their nation(s defeat in !orld !ar II% #hat
sirit of reconstruction was characteriDed by a oular ahorism& "Study the !est, catch the !est and
outdo the !est%$ #his hrase concisely summariDed what Jaan needed to do to become a cometitive
modern nation%
2s a young )ietnamese student, I often thin' about what )ietnam needs to do in order to ma'e (do
you thin' 'achieve' is a better word here+)more effective economic and social rogress% In the case of
)ietnam, what the country now needs to do is "Study the rest, catch the rest, and do your best%$
!hy substitute the word "rest$ for the word "!est$ in this )ietnamese version of the Jaanese motto
for economic success+ #he reasons derive from the different historical exeriences of the two
countries% Following !orld !ar II, the Jaanese felt that economically outerforming the !est was
very imortant given the military defeat they had suffered% >conomic success was in some ways the
only "revenge$ available to Jaan%
)ietnam(s develoment can best be achieved by observing and learning from all develoing and
develoed nations, not @ust those in the !est% /essons can be drawn from many of )ietnam(s 2sian
neighbors% 0hina(s economic growth rate is now one of the highest in the world1 South 4orea has
transformed a devastated ost3war economy into one of the world(s most technologically advanced
and raidly growing economies1 Singaore has develoed one of the world(s most dynamic and
successful multiracial societies, also with a flourishing economy% )ietnam does not necessarily need to
loo' to the !est for its economic models%
!hy "do your best$ rather than "outdo the !est$+ #his change to the motto is one that I suggest
because I am an otimistic (I susect you mean 'otimist', because 'otimistic' is an ad@ective) but
also a realistic observer (realistB ragmatist) % It serves no constructive urose to set unrealistic
goals, and recent statistics indicate that )ietnam would re8uire 9:; years, at its current rate of
economic growth, to become an economy the siDe of today(s Singaore economy% In 6= years (at its
current rate of growth), )ietnam(s economy will reach the siDe of #hailand(s E77F economy% #here is
still a significant economic ga between )iet*am and many of its Southeast 2sian neighbors1 now is
not the time for the )ietnamese to be trying to "catch the !est%$
I do not say this due to essimism1 it is fine for )ietnamese eole to dream of eventually "outdoing
the !est,$ but we should not set unrealistic or overambitious goals% It is not difficult to areciate how
the Jaanese motto "Study the !est, catch the !est and outdo the !est$ heled galvaniDe Jaan(s
oulation following the country(s defeat in !orld !ar II% 2s a motto for resent3day )ietnam,
however, the revision that I roose offers what I believe is a better rescrition for rogress and
economic develoment in resent3day )ietnam%
2fter five years of becoming a member of the !orld #radeGrganiDation (!#G), )ietnam has
exerienced many "gains and losses$% ,owever, )ietnam has been trying hard in
imlementing !#G commitments, so we have overcame many difficulties to develo
strongly in 6 main areas& economy, infrastructure, and human resources%
)ietnam(s osition has been raised in every field after @oining !#G, articularly
economics%2ccording a reort released at a review conference on )ietnam(s five3year entry
to the !#G held in ,anoi by the )ietnam 0hamber of 0ommerce and Industry ()00I)"<ore
)ietnamese comanies have gradually established their footing on regional and international
mar'ets% 2nnualiDed exort growth was9:%EH ercent on average in the E77; - E799
eriod, higher than the growth of 9I%9 ercent in the H3year eriod from E779 to E77H, the
time before )ietnam @oined the !#G% >xort turnover er caita in E797 was USJ:9=%=,
comared with USJHH:%E in E77F%$#he goal of )ietnam(s !#G entry is to change the
national economy over the long3term, so we have to make the WTO entry have a more
positive and effective impact on the national economy.
#he most considerable achievement that we have had so far is the develoment of
infrastructure% #here have been dee3sea orts and in road system& develoing connecting
road systems from industry Dones and cities to orts, develoing the exressway systems,
etc% Ky alying new method of investment as urchasing ower arity, )ietnam has
attracted logistics cororations( and businesses( investments in infrastructure in
international standard%Information and communication technology has also been invested
and therefore, it has develoed to serve logistics activities, leading to the time3saving, and
esecially bringing adding values to )ietnam suly chain%
2nother achievement of )ietnam is in a crucial field& human resources%#here have been
imrovements than's to efforts from two sides& state(s management authorities and
logistics businesses, esecially schools and institutes% #he integration itself has brought
many exeriences, ractices, and new models in doing logistics businesses in real )ietnam
conditions% #here have been blooming activities in training, ublishing as those in finance,
and real estate% Kut so far, human factor has been real "'not$ that the logistics industry has
to untie in next stages%!e have alied new information technology to logistics
management and suly chain%
In conclusion, )ietnam in the coming time should cooerate with other associations in
logistics industry and communicate with <inistries and related authorities to ma'e good
develoment in the rocess of integration, overcoming challenges from the time of global
economy%