Economy and Education: Top Concerns

 

Ambassador Michael W. Michalak said he was honoured to take the US Ambassador to Vietnam position when the relationships between Vietnam and the US are improved. Many US officials have found Vietnam a dynamic location and it has become the top or second issue in Washington. He revealed that when he concluded his ambassadorship to APEC, he asked to be an ambassador to Vietnam. He said “God hears my request; then I am present in Hanoi.”

 

To boost commercial and economic ties between the two nations, he said US companies want the Vietnamese Government to further improve the investment environment. He himself will meet the Vietnamese Government to discuss further improvement in transparency, business administration and project licensing procedures.

 

Vietnam-US trade revenue is estimated to exceed US$10 billion, but the US is encountering an increasing trade deficit with Vietnam. Michalak said the reduction of the trade deficit will result from the improvement of the Vietnamese economy, becoming a consumption-based economy from an export-based economy.

 

As consumption increases, the quality and supply capacity requirement will also be high. Michalak said several US commodities and services are perfect and he believed that many more US commodities will be exported to Vietnam during his ambassadorship here.

 

Apart from the economic field, he said his goal in the new tenure is to double the number of Vietnamese overseas students in the US. To realise this goal, US officials will visit Vietnamese universities and education establishments to help them with ways to obtain overseas study visas in the US. The US side is also seeking co-sponsors for their scholarship programmes, possibly Vietnamese Government or local governments. If the Vietnamese side can support 20-30 per cent of costs, the number of Vietnamese overseas students will soar.

 

He also announced that a meeting for US organisations in Vietnam might be opened by the end of this year to boost the education relationship between the two nations.

 

“Many organisations are willing to grant many kinds of scholarships for Vietnamese students to learn in the US. I want to meet all of them to work out initiatives to increase the number of Vietnamese overseas students in the US,” he added.

 

Also in the framework of an educational cooperation programme between the two nations, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister cum Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem proposed the US help Vietnam train 20,000 doctors in the next 10 years. Mr Michalak affirmed that the Fulbright programme could help Vietnam to realise this goal. He said that the US side might increase support for the Fulbright Foundation and plan to use this fund more effectively to realise the goal.

 

Ambassador Michael W. Michalak is a career foreign service officer with extensive knowledge and experience in Asia. Prior to this position, Ambassador Michalak served as the US Senior Official to APEC. In his over 30 years of service with the US Department of State, Mr Michalak has worked in Tokyo (Japan), Sydney (Australia), Islamabad (Pakistan) and Beijing (China), as well as Washington DC where he worked in the East Asia and Pacific Division, Japanese Issues Office, and Chinese and Mongolian Issues Office. He speaks Chinese and Japanese fluently. Ambassador Michalak will be joined in Hanoi by his wife and one of his three daughters.