Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, who is visited Cuba this week, said in a lecture at Havana University, “The market economy of its own cannot destroy socialism. But to build socialism with success it is necessary to develop a market economy in an adequate and correct way.” He added, “ With the clear vision of the [Communist Party of Cuba the island] . . . will surely reach great achievements and successfully reach a prosperous and sustainable socialism.”[1]
Vietnam in the 1980s started to open up its centralized economy and as a result has lifted around 30 million Vietnamese out of poverty.
Interestingly Cuban media had many reports about Mr. Trong’s visit, but this blogger has not found any coverage of the above speech and its implicit criticism of Cuba’s failure to fully embrace market economic reforms.[2]
The closest it came was the report that Mr. Trong “expressed his full conviction that, guided by the decisions adopted in the VI and VII PCC Congresses, Cuba will continue to successfully implement the updating of the social and economic model of socialist development” and the statement that the two countries had an “Intergovernmental Commission for Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation” and exchanges on “the socio-economic models of the respective countries.”[3]
This soft pedaling of Mr. Trong’s comments contrasts with the Cuban Communist Party’s own recent admissions of mistakes in its liberalizing of the Cuban economy as discussed in a prior post.
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[1] Reuters, In Cuba, Vietnam Communist Party Chief Advocates Economic Reforms, N.Y. Times (Mar. 29, 2018). A more complete report of Mr. Trong’s speech is contained in a Vietnamese source: General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong received an honorary doctorate in Cuba, Zing (Mar. 30, 2018).
[2] The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam to arrive in Cuba today, Granma (Mar. 28, 2018); Ten landmarks in Cuba-Vietnam relations, Granma (Mar. 28, 2018); Peraza, Vietnam and Cjuba: Examples of what socialism can achieve, Granma (Mar. 29, 2018); Peraza, Cuba and Vietnam have the common goal of advancing in the construction of socialism, Granma (Mar. 29, 2018); Univ. Havana, He receives honorary title “Doctor Honoris Causa” in Political Science Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong (Mar. 29, 2018); Peraza, The youth of Cuba and Vietnam have the mission to keep alive the flame of brotherhood, Granma (Mar. 30, 2018); Castro, To the people, to the communist Party and to the Government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, our eternal gratitude, Granma (Mar. 30, 3018); Cuba and Vietnam: a brotherhood that takes hold (+ Photos), Granma (Mar. 31, 2018); Gómez, A path of success, Granma (Mar. 31, 2018). New stage of development in its historical links, Granma (Mar. 31, 2018).
[3] New stage of development in its historical links, Granma (Mar. 31, 2018).
Interesting.
I wonder what steps Cuba thinks correct, and which steps erroneous.
Similarly for Vietnam.
I assume that nobody thinks that law-of-the-jungle free market is a good idea; that is to say, the removal of all laws relating to commerce, including standards for weight and measures.