HAI PHONG, June 15, 1999 (Reuters) - International donors expressed discontent with Vietnam on Tuesday, despite pledges from the communist-ruled country to further economic and political reform.
``We are disappointed,'' said one western ambassador during a break in a mid-year meeting between the Hanoi government and its foreign backers. ``There was a reaffirmation that the state sector would keep a dominant role in the economy.''
Donors and foreign investors are losing patience as Hanoi is seen to backslide on promises of political and economic reform, analysts say.
The donors, while committed to seeing this impoverished nation of 79 million people drag itself into the modern world, seem set to issue a collective groan, analysts say.
``Every year it is the same,'' said one senior Western diplomat. ``They say they welcome assistance, we say what about reforms? They say sure, and we say when?''
In a sign of increasing frustration, German ambassador to Hanoi, Wolfgang Erck, late last week broke with diplomatic protocol and launched a stinging attack on what he saw as an increasingly intolerant and conservative regime.
Erck voiced concern about human rights and said aid to Vietnam could be affected if Hanoi did not deepen reform and free state shackles that are seen to inhibit market economics.
``We have the impression there is less tolerance now, more limitations for the press (and) religious communities, and we have concerns over other sectors...(such as) political prisoners,'' he said.
Donors and foreign investors have in recent years become increasingly critical of Hanoi's perceived backsliding on promised reforms, including the promotion of the country's small but hamstrung private sector.
The meeting gathered Vietnam and the World Bank Consultative Group (CG) of bilateral and multilateral donors in a mid-year review of reform and official development assistance (ODA).
Andrew Steer, director in Vietnam for the World Bank, said Hanoi had marked impressive progress since it launched tentative reforms in the late 1980s, but those gains could possibly be reversed.
``Last year we met at a time when we were very concerned,'' said Steer. ``Today the situation is more serious than it was last year.''
One participant in the meeting said many donor calls for concrete reform in key areas were rejected.
``The Vietnamese totally rebuffed any approaches...on most sensitive issues,'' he said.
Major areas of concern include a cumbersome and inefficient state sector, discriminatory business regulations, the lack of a comprehensive legal framework and a shaky banking sector.
Participants in the meeting said no new pledges of aid would be made, but that recommendations on implementation and long-term development assistance would be devised for further consideration at the next full annual donors' meeting due in December.