Us To Lift Ban On Loan Funds To Vietnam
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday July 2, 1993
SINGAPORE, Friday: Eighteen years after the last Americans fled Saigon ahead of victorious communist forces, the United States has agreed to end its opposition to Vietnam getting access to hundreds of millions of dollars of world loan funds.
The decision by the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, will clear the way for the lifting of a broad US trade embargo imposed on Hanoi in 1964 and extended to all of Vietnam after 1975.
The embargo has been seen in Asia as a policy of punishment for Vietnam winning the war. It has effectively isolated Vietnam politically and economically for almost 20 years.
Australian trade officials say Australian companies are well placed to benefit from the flow of international bank loans to Hanoi that will result from the decision.
"There will be quite a number of large infrastructure projects for which our companies will be attractive bidders," said Mr John Allgrove, the executive general manager of Austrade in South-East Asia.
US officials said yesterday Mr Clinton would accept the advice of his foreign policy advisers and drop US opposition to a request by Vietnam today to refinance debts of $US140 million with the International Monetary Fund(IMF).
France and Japan want to lend Vietnam the $140 million to pay off the old Saigon regime's debts, freeing Hanoi to get new loans to help its market-orientated reforms.
The ending of opposition to IMF funding will put the Clinton Administration under immense pressure from US firms to quickly lift the trade embargo which has locked them out of a market with high potential for growth.
Although committed to socialism, Vietnam has introduced economic reforms to create a vibrant economy for its 71 million people. The lifting of bans on international loans from organisations like the IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank will open contracts for big infrastructure projects such as roads, airports, ports and power facilities.
Mr Allgrove said Australia had told the Vietnamese "we are after a piece of the action" when the funds started to flow.
But he also sounded a note of caution. "Australian companies should not see Vietnam as some sort of Shangri-la," he said. "Vietnam is a place for the stout-hearted. Companies in there for the long-haul will benefit."
The embargo enabled some Australian firms to establish a presence in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) while US and Japanese companies were shut out.
US officials said earlier this week any decision to drop opposition to world loans would be in appreciation of Hanoi's co-operation in the search for Americans missing in the war between the two countries.
"There is no change in our position that progress in our relationship with Vietnam depends upon progress in full disclosure on MIAs and POWs," said a White House spokeswoman, Ms Dee Dee Myers.
Some US veteran and family groups claim Hanoi is still withholding information about more than 2,200 Americans officially unaccounted for.
There were still differences within the Clinton Administration on whether Vietnam was doing enough on the MIA issue, analysts in Washington said.
The US's refusal to budge earlier on its hardline policy towards Vietnam has been seen in South-East Asia as being out of step with reality as Vietnam co-operated in the search to trace the missing Americans and played a key role in allowing the United Nations to sponsor elections in neighbouring Cambodia.
Vietnam withdrew its forces from Cambodia in 1989.
Mr Clinton must decide before September 14 whether to issue an executive order maintaining the trade embargo.
The former President, Mr Bush, extended it to that date last year but later authorised US companies to set up offices in Vietnam. IMF directors will vote on loans to Vietnam on July 12.
Vietnamese officials in Hanoi welcomed the imminent US move, calling it an important step.
Mr Clinton aims to use a trip to Japan and South Korea next week to stress US interests in Asia and to spell out his policy for the region.
© 1993 Sydney Morning Herald