Guest speech: Ambassador of S. R. Vietnam, H.E. Mr. Nguyen Ba Than

At the occasion of last May high-level state, when the Vietnamese State President accompanied with the Austrian President Fischer visited the IMC and addressed the IMC faculty audience, and also as the continuation of the ASEAN Experts - Guest Lecture Series of the IMC Export, under the auspices of the Chair for International Law and Global Political Studies, Prof. Dr. Anis Bajrektarevic invited H.E. Ambassador Nguyen Ba Than, current Ambassador of the S.R. Vietnam to Austria.

After a warm welcome and a brief introduction given by the Chairman Prof. Bajrektarevic, Ambassador Nguyen Ba Than started with a picture-show of the stunning and really impressive richness of Vietnam’s festivals (eg. Gia Lim, Thi Cam Rice Cooking Festival, Bamboo Dance, Ka Te Festival …) and world heritage (e.g. Halong Bay, Sung Sot Grotto, Titov Island, Son River, My Son world heritage and many more).

Afterwards H.E. Nguyen Ba Than held a very informative and comprehensive speech, which offered the listener a valuable, new view of Vietnam amidst booming Indochina and total Asian continent. Throughout the whole event a relaxed atmosphere prevailed created by Ambassador Nguyen Ba Than’s charismatic character. This added to the high quality of H.E.’s speech making it a very appealing event, which will be highly appreciated to come again.

Mr. Nguyen Ba Than began with briefly introducing Vietnam in general, which is located on the Indochina Peninsula and comprises a surface of 311.000 km2. It is bordered by China (North), Laos (Northwest), Cambodia (Southwest) and the South China Sea (East). With a population of over 86 million, the mountain- and forest-rich country is the 13th most populous country in the world. The two prevailing climate areas, 4-seasons in the North and Subtropical/Tropical climate in the South, still divide the country, which was reunited in 1975.

Furthermore, Ambassador Nguyen Ba Than briefly explained the Vietnamese History, stating the Vietnamese region as one of the cradles of civilization. After admitting mistakes in Vietnam’s economic and sociopolitical past, Mr. Nguyen Ba Than elaborated on the reform policy introduced in 1986, a milestone in establishing Vietnam as an equivalent trading partner for more than 170 countries. Since then Vietnam embarked on a steep economic uprising. The industrial sector eg. expanded from 22% of GDP in 1990 to 42% in 2005. Furthermore, the structure of services sector changed remarkably towards higher quality and unrestricted availability. These developments helped raise the living standard and great efforts were taken to fight poverty and analphabetism, also resulting in the implementation of compulsory primary education.

Moreover, H.E. laid further emphasis on the two most important economic topics for Vietnam at the moment, FDI and Tourism. On that note, Ambassador Nguyen Ba Than named four reasons making Vietnam an excellent business partner: its being part of the dynamic Asian economies, its young, well-educated workforce and relatively low wages, its greatly extended safety measures and, of utmost importance not only for Austria, its high amount of skilled employees with professional experience in German-speaking countries who understand German mentality. Concerning tourism, H.E. mentioned the ample variety of recreation possibilities Vietnam offers and its extensive cultural richness.

The last point covered in the formal part addressed the current financial crisis, which took a double-hit in Vietnam due to its situation as an exporting and developing nation. The explosion of the world’s oil price led to a steep fall of Vietnam’s economy, resulting in stagnation and inflation of up to 20%. However, a sound economic stimulus package helps in the normalization process and first signs of recovery could already be observed.

The lecture was followed by a discussion in which H.E. Nguyen Ba Than kindly shared his expertise with us and conveyed valuable first-hand information on all topics raised.

Firstly, bilateral relations were discussed with the short briefing on the outcome of the recent visit of Vietnamese Vice Prime Minster to Austria. Ambassador Ba Than Nguyen mentioned Vietnam’s strengthened relations with China, France and the US. The latter belongs to Vietnam’s most important trading partners and is the single biggest FDI investor. He emphasized that it is vital to leave behind the past and start looking ahead into a future characterized by increased cooperation. Other topics that were brought up for discussion included labor costs, FDI, the Paracel Islands, human rights, freedom of opinion and living conditions prevailing in Vietnam. Ambassador Ba Than Nguyen stated that there are differences in mentality and everyday life of people living in the North and those living in the South of the country, however, differences have declined over time and living standards are rising.

Further topics dealt with during the discussion included the Vietnam war and its impacts on the country’s economy.
Finally, possibilities regarding education and work placements in Vietnam were addressed. In the last few years, more than 100 new universities and colleges have been established.

The official part was followed by a cocktail and students were given the opportunity to discuss further topics of interest with Ambassador H.E. Nguyen Ba Than.

The Guest Lecture of Ambassador H.E. Ba Than Nguyen was the 65th event organized by Chairman Prof. Dr. Anis Bajrektarevic. The next in-house event will take place on 13th of May when the IMC EXP is hosting H.E. Ms. Eva Biaudet, former Finland’s Minister & Special OSCE Representative (Topic: “The Dark side of Trade – Human Trafficking / Recent Developments”).

Photos: Marketing, C. Neuherz & K. Fletzberger
Text: M. Weichselbaum (rev. A.B.)

Study Visit to the Representation of the EC/E Parliament in Vienna & the National Parliament of Austria 2009

On April 21, 2009, the yearly visit to the to the Austrian Representation of the European Commission and European Parliament located in Vienna took place under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Anis Bajrektarevic, Chairman for International Law & Global Political studies. The representative team of the European Commision and European Parliament functions as a link between local individuals and organizations and Brussel-based insitutions and persues the objective of achieving a greater responsiveness and proximity to Austrian citizens.

The visit was intiated with an informative presentation on the scope of work of the EU legislative institutions by Karl Doutlik, Representative of the EC. Later on the series of high-quality speakers was continued by Wolfang Hiller, InfoB. of the European Parliament and Bernhard Kuhr.

The study visit organized under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Anis Bajrektarevic, Chairman for International Law & Global Political Affairs at the IMC Krems, was concluded by visiting the a plenary in the National Parliament and taking family photos in front of parliament.

Text: Marlene K. / Christian S.

Guest speech: Ambassador of Russian Federation, H.E. Mr. Alexander Zmeyevskiy

As a continuation of the Guest Lecture UN Series, and at the occasion of today’s opening of the G-20 summit in London, under the auspices of the Chair for International Law and Global Political Studies, Prof. Dr. Anis Bajrektarevic invited H.E. Alexander Zmeyevskiy residential Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the IAEA and other Vienna-based IOs to pay a visit to the IMC FH Krems and hold a guest lecture to the University fellows.

Chairman Bajrektarevic warmly welcomed the ambassador by giving a brief introduction of the Ambassador’s former and current fields of occupation. H.E. Ambassador Zmeyevskiy graduated from the Moscow Institute of International Relations. Amongst others he served at the International Law Department of the Foreign Ministry, as Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN in New York and currently, since February 2007, he is Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the International Organizations in Vienna.

After Prof Bajrektarevic introduced H.E. Zmeyevskiy and Dr. Shishlov to the audience, the ambassador opened the floor. His Excellency’s main goal during the lecture was to make clear the current position of the Russian Federation on the global political arena. H.E. Ambassador Zmeyevskiy started his speech by explaining the three diplomatic missions in Vienna. He also spoke about the international organizations, such as UNIDO and UNODC, and commented on the Russian involvement into those organizations. Mr Zmeyevskiy described Vienna as headquarter for international energy organizations. Apart from the IAEA it’s also the OPEC which has its headquarters there. His Excellency mentioned that, for instance, UNIDO it is dealing with industrial development to assist primarily developing countries but also non-developing countries. Additionally, in this respect he has brought several examples, one of which was dealing with the Russian Company AVTOVAZ. This company is producing spare parts in Samara, but approximately 3-4 years ago AVTOVAZ had insufficient funds. The ambassador stressed that UNIDO has found money in Slovenia to support AVTOVAZ; no one knows how the UNIDO team managed to do it. At the moment the company is prospering, if not to take into consideration the current financial crisis. His Excellency noticed that a team of real professionals is working for UNIDO. Therefore, the ambassador advised the students to study more about this organization.

When mentioning UNODC, His Excellency pointed out that the politicians should try to make the production of drugs senseless. The main task is to prevent its production. On the other hand, this office is also dealing with the corruption issue and Mr Zmeyevskiy thinks that there should be an integrated approach in dealing with this problem, as it is definitely solvable. The main goal in this aspect is to demotivate people to be involved in corruption. Additionally, His Excellency briefly spoke about the project between Norilsk Nickel and UNODC. Companies should be shown their own interest in certain projects, and then it is possible to step behind.

Moreover H.E. Ambassador Zmeyevskiy referred to the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) which is an international research organization in Laxenburg near Vienna, as an institute where a lot of outstanding businessmen/women are doing researches on environmental, business, technological and social issues. Many Russian academicians pass by this institution.

Regional organizations are gaining more and more power on the international level. The ambassador believes that in future there will be more regional organizations. Moreover, the idea of creating standard atomic plans was discussed during today’s guest lecture. Russian approach is pragmatic but on the other hand cooperative.
Additionally, one of the former Russian ambassadors to Austria and simply a very important Russian Knyazh and diplomat was mentioned by Mr Zmeyevskiy. His name is Lobanov-Rostovskiy and recently Mr Zmeyevskiy has got a chance to meet his granddaughter.

According to the IMC’s guest, the Vienna agenda has a great potential for positive development. Topics are discussed in a positive fashion. Vienna gives a lot of opportunities to promote constructive strategies.

One of the most significant topics of this guest lecture was the recent meeting between President Medvedev and President Obama. The ambassador said that there were positive statements from both sides, which is a good sign for the future cooperation between Russia and the United States. Both countries recognize positive changes and both recognize that they were moving wrong directions in the past. For instance, Russia and the former USSR lost a lot during the transformation periods, but Mr. Zmeyevskiy believes that Russia has good future opportunities. Generally, he encouraged the peoples of the whole World to think about the future.

The final part of the lecture was reserved for students’ questions. Professor Bajrektarevic opened the question-answer session with an issue concerning the meeting of G20 in London. In response, the ambassador expressed his optimistic views concerning the current financial crisis. He has cited the Chinese approach: “In every crisis there is a possibility”. There is always an opportunity to reconsider economy. It is important not to be dependent on exports, to diversify and to realize what the limits of protectionism are.

Referring to the current financial crisis, Mr Zmeyevskiy mentioned that it is needed to minimize the consequences and the risk to prevent future crisis. Therefore a solution, which satisfies everybody, is needed. He emphasized the importance of the young generation which is studying at the moment. Their knowledge, research and development as well as a needed breakthrough can contribute to a change.

The extensive question-answer session was an opportunity to hear the views on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, state-of-art in bilateral US-Russia relations, on Ukraine, Kosovo, Georgia, Chechnya, on Russia’s positions towards Arctic, the EU–Russian relations, 3-party and 6-party talks, currents in the IAEA Board of Directors, new technologies and Russian role in the CERN, ITER and Outer Space applications, on energy security and delivery issues, etc. The ambassador shared with the students his opinion and experiences in this concern. Mr Zmeyevskiy showed himself as a very optimistic person.

The official part of the Ambassador’s visit was closed with a cocktail and a family photo. Due to the fact that H.E. Zmeyevskiy was in a rush to meet with an Italian Ambassador, after the official part students were approaching Dr. Alexander Shishlov, Counsellor of the Russian Federation to the International Organizations in Vienna. In rather relaxed and atmospheric setting, the IMC students had the opportunity to discuss with him further questions.

The Guest Lecture with Ambassador H.E. Alexander Zmeyevskiy was the 63rd event organized by Chairman Prof. Dr. Anis Bajrektarevic. The next in-house event will take place on 22nd of April when Prof. Dr. Bajrektarevic is hosting H.E. Mr. Ba Than Nguyen, Ambassador of the S.R. Vietnam to Austria and the UN & Vienna IOs with following topic: “Booming Indochina – opportunities and obstacles seen from the Vietnam perspective.” IMC Students are looking forward to another insightful event.

Photos: H. Maglock & S. Waldbauer
Text: M. Sukhotinova & M. Pravec (rev. A.B.)