EVENTS

Abstracts           

Challenges in Vietnam-China Trade and Investment Relations

In Vietnam-China trade and investment relations, the biggest challenge is Vietnam‘s trade deficit with China. Vietnam suffers from a huge trade deficit and it continues to increase. In addition, border trade activities lack stability and soundness with smuggling and trading of fake, shoddy goods still popular along the entire border. Besides, China is pushing massive investment into Vietnam with poor-quality projects including mainly outsourcing manufacturing ones, forcing Vietnamese businesses to compete in their own country. In the context of globalization and deeper international economic integration, Vietnam’s expansion and promotion of economic cooperation and trade with China is inevitable but it should also be kept in mind that cooperation must bring benefits to both sides; especially. At the moment, Vietnam has to try hard not to suffer much from this cooperation. This presentation examines the main challenges that Vietnam is facing in trade and investment relations with China and proposes a number of necessary policy adjustments for Vietnam.

Indian PM Narendra Modi’s visit to Vietnam and its impact on Vietnam-India Relations

15 years after the official visit to Vietnam of then Prime Minister A. B. Vajpayee, the leader of the Government of India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made another official visit to Vietnam from 2-3 September 2016. The visit to Vietnam of Prime Minister Modi has upgraded bilateral relations between Vietnam and India from a “Strategic Partnership” to “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”, marking a new development in the relationship between two countries. According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs of India, Modi’s visit has set a “new benchmark for India-Vietnam ties which will take the relationship to a whole new level.” This presentation will analyze some of the results of the visit to Vietnam by the Indian Prime Minister and its impact on Vietnam-India relations.

About the Speakers

Ngo Xuan Binh is a professor in economics and international relations. He is currently Director-General of the Institute for Indian and Southwest Asian Studies; Editor-in-chief of Review for Indian and Asian Studies and Dean of Department of Business Administration, Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam. His research interests include Vietnam-India relation, India’s international relations with major powers such as US and China, Japan, India-ASEAN relations.

Prof. Binh has been visiting scholar at Georgetown University and Cornell University (1990), Havard University (1996), South Florida University (2007), Japan Institute of International Affairs (1993), University of Tokyo (2001), International Center for the Study of East Asian Development Kitakyushu, Japan (2010).

Prof. Binh has published 10 books and co-authored 14 books. He has also published over 80 articles in various journals in Vietnam and in international journals. His recent books include Asia-Pacific in the policy of the USA, Japan and China (2008), Promoting Vietnam-India relation in the New Context (2012), Promoting Vietnam-Korea in the New Context (2012), Vietnam, India and Southwest Asia: Historical Links and Present Situation (2013); Towards Building Strategic Partnership between Vietnam and the US (2014).

Dr. Le Thi Hang Nga is currently Head of the Department of Historical & Cultural Studies, assistant director of foreign affairs of the Institute for Indian & Southwest Asian Studies. Earlier, Ms. Nga was lecturer at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Ho Chi Minh City National University from 2005 to 2011.

She has also been secretary of one State-level project and members of various Ministry-level research projects. She has taken part in the writing of two books (one in Vietnamese and one in English). She has participated in various international conferences in Vietnam and abroad and has had dozens of articles published in academic journals of Vietnam and India.