(VOVWORLD) - Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan was a vibrant public intellectual, a good political activist, diplomat, and economist of Vietnam, who made significant contributions to Vietnam’s construction and development, especially during the open-door period for global integration.
 Professor Thomas J. Vallely gives an interview to VNA. (Photo: Thanh Vu) |
Thomas J. Vallely, Director of Vietnam Program at Harvard Kennedy School, said that in the late 1990s and early 2000, Mr. Vu Khoan and other Vietnamese leaders carried out external economic activities towards the goal of completely normalizing diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the US.
At that time, Professor Thomas J. Vallely worked at the Institute for International Development at Harvard Kennedy School and engaged in informal consultancy with the Vietnamese Party and Government on national renewal.
He said Mr. Vu Khoan was an active intellectual, especially in trade and agricultural monopolies, with many ideas for Vietnam’s innovation.
Professor Vallely said that Mr. Vu Khoan was the leader of economic and trade promotion activities, contributing to setting the past aside and opening up a new chapter in the Vietnam-US relations. He played an important role in organizing former US President Bill Clinton’s official visit to Vietnam in 2000. He was an influential politician who made great efforts to amending Vietnam’s law on economics and commerce to match the WHO’s standards.