International scientific conference: “The modern market economy and integration of Vietnam”

Pr. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thang – President of Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences delivered the opening speech at the conference to warmly welcome all the representatives and participants of the conference and strengthened the importance of conference’s subject as a great contribution in summarizing 30 years of renewal in Vietnam. Under the circumstances of a fast – changing world, to implement the research and evaluate the characteristics and new issues of Vietnamese market economy is an essential and urgent task. The Professor and President of VASS also required the conference to concentrate on clarifying the characteristics and popularity of modern market economy which Vietnam (who is socialism) has to follow, respect and utilize for the development; What kind of issues and matters are faced with by the structure of market economy in Vietnam as well as the relationship of State and market?...  

To welcome the Conference, Mr. Erwin Schweisshelm, Director of FES Vietnam Office, shared that: FES is a political foundation which has a close relationship with Social Democratic Party of Germany, one of two ruling parties in Germany today. As a very first international organization in Vietnam, FES opened its office since 1990 of the earlier century. This conference is an important event which remarked the cooperation between FES and Institute of Philosophy to create forum for both international and Vietnamese scientists to discuss the relationship between market economy and democracy under the circumstances of international integration. This is a new research project carried out by Institute of Philosophy to collect opinions for the materials and documents preparation of the 12^nd National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam will take place in 2016.

Speaking at the Conference, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pham Van Duc, Director of Institute of Philosophy said that: there are currently many market economy models in the world such as free market economy, social market economy, mixing market economy, and socialism market economy. Vietnam is building market economy model towards socialism so among the practical and theoretical issues raised in the developing period of the country, the study of modern market economy in terms of interactive relations and promoting democracy in society is an especially meaningful matter. He expected the Conference will become an active forum for both foreign and domestic scholars to share the practical and theoretical issues related to the formation of market economy and the promotion of democracy in society. Thereby, to significantly contribute in the progress of developing market economy policies towards socialism of Vietnam in near future.

The conference divided into three sessions, the 1^st session is Market economy and democracy in 30 years of renewal of Vietnam: Experiences and challenges; the 2^nd session is: Market economy and democracy: International experience; the 3^rd session is: Introduction and orientation of World Café Program: The lessons for Vietnam in integration process.

Accordingly, there are nine reports presented in the Conference on matters such as: The progress of changing mind of Communist Party of Vietnam on market economy and international integration of Vietnam; Democracy and market economy: An approach from the perspective of German social democracy; The challenges for social protection and political liberalization in Singapore; The advantages and disadvantages of step – by – step changing strategy of China; “20 years of finding way” and the difficulties of the progress of mechanism changing in Japan; Developing an economy with different components in Laos; The explanation of market economy towards socialism in Vietnam; and The model of market economy towards socialism in Vietnam… 

The conference became especially lively in the World Café session which is a form of interactive seminar is encouraged by Institute of Philosophy to improve the interactivity of individuals and teams in discussion. In this session, the representatives were divided into three groups, each group together shortly discussed issues of economic models in different nations, the practical prospect and democracy circumstance of these models, after that, the representatives from each group will move to another group and briefly introduced of the discussed contents of group by table host. By doing this, the Conference encouraged representatives to discuss with each other, especially when the future problems of development in Vietnam mentioned under the circumstances of international integration, lessons, characteristics, and limitations in implementing democracy and different economic models all over the world.

The scientists frankly discussed and agreed on many perspectives related to the economic and democracy development. For example, human is a center of comprehensive development, to complete human and reach the freedom is an important principle of democracy and ensuring social equity; To build the legal framework to ensure a healthy market competition and fairness among economic sectors. To clarify a complete market economy means to reach a new status of highly economic freedom, the degree of government intervention in the operation mechanism of the economy is minimal in terms of resources allocation and interference in business activities of the corporate sector. Moreover, market economy also required the Government to have an effective legal system andenforcement of property rights and to create an effective legal framework for business operation…  

To conclude the Conference, Assoc. Pr. Dr. Pham Van Duc said that the opinions significantly clarified the practical and theoretical issues which are discussed during the Conference and have meaningful contribution in the materials and documents preparation of the 12^nd National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam will take place in 2016 as well as the progress of developing market economy policies towards socialism of Vietnam.  

Pham Vinh Ha