Vietnam gets tough in its fight against corruption

It is the second death sentence handed down for embezzlement in recently. Just last month a former banker at a state-owned bank and his business associate were sentenced to death for embezzlement. In 2012 Pham Thanh Binh, former chairman of Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin) was jailed for 20 years misappropriated funds and causing the collapse of the group.

Meting out such harsh penalties to officials who until recently held very high-powered positions it is clear the Vietnamese government wants to show it means business in its fight against corruption.

In case of the former Vinalines top bosses they were found guilty of accepting kickbacks for themselves and others totaling $1.666m in a corrupt deal to buy an aging floating dock from Russia at overinflated price causing a $17.26m loss to the state budget.

This case obviously involved particularly large sums of money but anecdotal evidence on the ground showed that “brown envelopes” routinely passed under the table for even the most simple of deals.

Corruption combined with a wider issue of mismanagement of state-owned companies such as Vinashin and complex series of national, regional and local bureaucracy that has frustrated infrastructure developments.

The global economic crisis exacerbated these difficulties and as result Vietnam has been left with a shipbuilding industry, that nearly went bankrupt and is now being dramatically downsized, an ailing national shipowner and huge port complex at Cai Mep close to Ho Chi Minh City which heavily under-utilised due to the lack of supporting infrastructure to connect the terminals to industrial areas.

The latest crack down on corruption will be just one part of bringing Vietnam back on track to try and meet the ambitions of developing its economy.