lool yes its true indeed i must confess. Our governments in the west/U.S did the same think with Sub sharan African countries for decades now, and Africa is still a poor/corrupt country(in fact it just got more worse). The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment. Its a game our governments have perfected for decades, while the Japanese seemed to have learned from us with time, China as well seems to be catching up on that, though theirs is a little bit different in that they offer loans and carry out the projects themselves or exchange it for purchase of raw materials, though its better its still not the best.
For me Aid is an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.i say this because Africa is a continent i know very well and have visited several times and even lived briefly in some. So i can see for myself that things only got worse with time.
For me i can still understand Emergency aid like in case of natural disasters/tsunami/storm, epidermic etc, but government-to-government aid or aid from large development institutions such as the World Bank is always a sham.
You can see this in the fact that, even after the very aggressive debt-relief campaigns in the 1990s, African countries still pay close to $30 billion in debt repayments per annum, a stark reminder(to countries like Vietnam) that aid is not free. In order to keep the system going, debt is repaid at the expense of African education,health care and future generation have to bare the burden. Well-meaning calls to cancel debt mean little when the cancellation is met with the fresh infusion of aid, and the vicious cycle starts up once again.
When i look at Vietnam and Japans ODA relationship , it reminds me of a French speaking African country i know very very well i.e Decmocratic Republic of Congo(known formerly as Zaire). I rmeeber reading on the financial times 3 years ago that that Irwin Blumenthal (whom the IMF had appointed to a post in the country's central bank) warned in 1978 that the system was so corrupt that there was no prospect for Zaire's creditors to get their money back. Still, the IMF soon gave the country the largest loan it had ever given an African nation.
The counry's former dictator Monbutu seseko alone was worth over $10billion of course through corruption. Note Congo is Africas richest country interms of resources(and one of the richest resource blessed country on earth), yet they are one of the top 10 poorest countries in the world.
Same with another example i can give fior another african country i.e malawi .The country's former president President Bakili Muluzi in 2009 was charged with embezzling aid money worth $12 million. Zambia's former President Frederick Chiluba (a development darling of our governments lool during his 1991 to 2001 tenure) was embroiled in a court case that revealed millions of dollars frittered away from health, education and infrastructure toward his personal cash dispenser. Yet the aid keeps on coming.
So you should ask yourself why we keep pumping aid to them, the answer should be obvious to you.
So Vietnam shouldnt fall for this(thank GOD people like Niceguy are aware of this), since a constant stream of "free" money is a perfect way to keep an inefficient or simply bad government in power. As aid flows in, there is nothing more for the government to do, as it doesn't need to raise taxes, and as long as it pays the army, it doesn't have to take account of its disgruntled citizens. No matter that its citizens are disenfranchised (as with no taxation there can be no representation). All the government really needs to do is to court and cater to its foreign donors to stay in power.
so a truly nascent economy like Vietnam and other poor developing countries needs a transparent and accountable government and an efficient civil service to help meet social needs. Its people need jobs and a belief in their country's future. A surfeit of aid has been shown to be unable to help achieve these goals.