Vietnam Economy Forum

[AViet]

I agree with you brother.

But I’m not sure if I should comment in this thread, I find AViet a very funny and strange member and not sure if I should take him seriously. Nearly all of his posts are about praising the confucian/east asian/chinese culture and attacking western or other cultures, even when the topic is only about military equipments, geopolitics, education, etc. This thread is only for VN’s economy but he still managed to use it to praise chinese/confucian culture haha.

Its not strange if a Vietnamese praise confucian/chinese culture because I have seen Viets who are like that. Its also not strange if a Vietnamese hate the west because I have seen Viets who hate the west. But I find it strange for this AViet member to also attack India like the Chinese do and talk like VN is better than India. For example, VN has absolutely nothing on the same level as Indian Institutes of Technology, not even close! Our scientific output (e.g. science academic publishing or patents registering) is nowhere near the level of India, ours is low by world’s average. Yet AViet still claimed that our domestic PhDs and education is one of the best in the world. So I’m not sure if I should take him seriously.

You are one of the few members of the Vietnamese American forumers which I find rational, otherwise I will not answer such personal attack.

You, in the West, believe that government and institutions are the most decisive factors to the future of a country. That's why you continuously talk about democracy, freedom of media and so on, also in this thread.

However, my belief, which is rooted from "How to build a nation" of Lee Guan Yew, is the quality of people, not institutions, is the most decisive factor to the future of a country, that's why I continuously talk about East Asian / Confucious culture and so on in this thread. Is it any different to your action?

Regarding Indian, you are living in the US and possibly you are working with the top crème of Indian, hence we have different opinions. You may not know that in Vietnam, in a meeting of a very big economic sector, the speaker, who is in a high position in trade, openly says that trade with any Indian companies should be avoided, because they are never honest in payment and delivery terms.

Despite all the bad mouthing about China, if you are in Vietnam, you will see that trade with them only increase year-on-year, and the share of trade with China increase too.

Regarding education, 2015 OECD report says that Vietnam rank 12th worldwide. You should not pick some successful Indian, mostly oversea Indian, in a mass of 1.2 billions, to prove your point. India, Pakistan and Egypt etc. all have received Nobel prize in physics, but Korea, Taiwan, China (except oversea Chinese) never have. Do you mean that quality of education in those countries behind India or Pakistan too?

 

[vtnsx]

I agree with you brother.

But I’m not sure if I should comment in this thread, I find AViet a very funny and strange member and not sure if I should take him seriously. Nearly all of his posts are about praising the confucian/east asian/chinese culture and attacking western or other cultures, even when the topic is only about military equipments, geopolitics, education, etc. This thread is only for VN’s economy but he still managed to use it to praise chinese/confucian culture haha.

Its not strange if a Vietnamese praise confucian/chinese culture because I have seen Viets who are like that. Its also not strange if a Vietnamese hate the west because I have seen Viets who hate the west. But I find it strange for this AViet member to also attack India like the Chinese do and talk like VN is better than India. For example, VN has absolutely nothing on the same level as Indian Institutes of Technology, not even close! Our scientific output (e.g. science academic publishing or patents registering) is nowhere near the level of India, ours is low by world’s average. Yet AViet still claimed that our domestic PhDs and education is one of the best in the world. So I’m not sure if I should take him seriously.

AViet is a halfer just like Huan. But both are brainwashed and uneducated in the real world. I'm not talking about Education through school.

No. You stated that, and I gave the case of South Korea as counter-example of a remarkably successful country that took 60 years to get where it is now. There is no 5-year shortcut. It took the USA 40 years to get to a stage where it no longer be burdened by debts incurred during the American Revolution. If you have proof, please give it, at least a link that I can read.

Russia.

 

[William Hung]

You are one of the few members of the Vietnamese American forumers which I find rational, otherwise I will not answer such personal attack.

You, in the West, believe that government and institutions are the most decisive factors to the future of a country. That's why you continuously talk about democracy, freedom of media and so on, also in this thread.

However, my belief, which is rooted from "How to build a nation" of Lee Guan Yew, is the quality of people, not institutions, is the most decisive factor to the future of a country, that's why I continuously talk about East Asian / Confucious culture and so on in this thread. Is it any different to your action?

Regarding Indian, you are living in the US and possibly you are working with the top crème of Indian, hence we have different opinions. You may not know that in Vietnam, in a meeting of a very big economic sector, the speaker, who is in a high position in trade, openly says that trade with any Indian companies should be avoided, because they are never honest in payment and delivery terms.

Despite all the bad mouthing about China, if you are in Vietnam, you will see that trade with them only increase year-on-year, and the share of trade with China increase too.

Regarding education, 2015 OECD report says that Vietnam rank 12th worldwide. You should not pick some successful Indian, mostly oversea Indian, in a mass of 1.2 billions, to prove your point. India, Pakistan and Egypt etc. all have received Nobel prize in physics, but Korea, Taiwan, China (except oversea Chinese) never have. Do you mean that quality of education in those countries behind India or Pakistan too?

Sorry but I have to respectfully say that you have poor analytical skills. I am not a vietnamese-american and I don’t live in the US. I have never claimed to be one so I don’t know how you have made that conclusion about me. Just by reading that comment alone, I can already tell you have poor judgement and analytical skills.

As for the problems about VN, I have already said it is a waste of time to discuss it here, but I’ll make one comment: you praise the so-called “confucius”/chinese culture of vn and china but that is one of the biggest problem for VN today. For example the problem of corruption, that is not just the problem of govt or politicians but a problem of the mainstream viet culture. The normal people are also involved in corruption, not just the leaders. Change the leaders and the replacements will also be corrupt and cheat. Change the govt and the next one will also be corrupt. Take vietnamese people away from VN and put them in a new developed country, and most of those viet will also be corrupt and cheat! Why do you think the Vietnamese community in Australia, Canada, UK have a bad reputation of being involved in marijuana/drug dealers, criminal activity, cheating the welfare system, etc.? because there are big problems with Vietnamese culture. Most just love to cheat and be corrupt.

Here is a video clip of chinese tourists in a thai hotel buffet, this is your beloved so-called “confucius”/chinese culture:

[video]

[/video]

Wow look at that, what a civilised culture!! Fighting over food like animal. This is the greatest culture in the world according to you? The video describe it right: sleazy, greedy + no manners. But I will change it to sleazy, greedy, unconsiderate to other people. And if you think carefully, the recent VN food safety scandal is caused by this same cultural problem: the traders being sleazy, greedy and unconsiderate to other people! And its no surprise that China have also these food scandals.

So its funny to always see you praise about the so-called “confucius”/chinese culture when in fact it is that exact culture that is actually a big problem. The sooner those Vietnamese gets rid of that “confucius”/chinese culture, the better. And don’t try to associate Singaporean/Korean culture with that kind of culture from mainland China, I know some Singaporean/Korean who would be offended by that.

As for your comment about VN 12th rank in education, that is only a ranking based on assessments for 15 year old kids. Check the much more important rankings for academic scientific research publishing or patents registration, VN is ranked low on that. You place the importance of 15 year old kids test but ignored the importance of university level education, that is a poor analysis.

 

[Carlosa]

You are one of the few members of the Vietnamese American forumers which I find rational, otherwise I will not answer such personal attack.

You, in the West, believe that government and institutions are the most decisive factors to the future of a country. That's why you continuously talk about democracy, freedom of media and so on, also in this thread.

However, my belief, which is rooted from "How to build a nation" of Lee Guan Yew, is the quality of people, not institutions, is the most decisive factor to the future of a country, that's why I continuously talk about East Asian / Confucious culture and so on in this thread. Is it any different to your action?

Regarding Indian, you are living in the US and possibly you are working with the top crème of Indian, hence we have different opinions. You may not know that in Vietnam, in a meeting of a very big economic sector, the speaker, who is in a high position in trade, openly says that trade with any Indian companies should be avoided, because they are never honest in payment and delivery terms.

Despite all the bad mouthing about China, if you are in Vietnam, you will see that trade with them only increase year-on-year, and the share of trade with China increase too.

Regarding education, 2015 OECD report says that Vietnam rank 12th worldwide. You should not pick some successful Indian, mostly oversea Indian, in a mass of 1.2 billions, to prove your point. India, Pakistan and Egypt etc. all have received Nobel prize in physics, but Korea, Taiwan, China (except oversea Chinese) never have. Do you mean that quality of education in those countries behind India or Pakistan too?

If I may. I'd like to share my experience on something. I love India and Indian people, but what Aviet said its true, there are a lot of tricky people there in business. When I was in USA, I imported product from India twice and I regretted it twice. I remember hearing from my customs brokers how sometimes Indian companies issu fake shipping documents in order to get payment, sometimes they ship you a container that is just full of stones, etc.

That being said, there are a lot of tricky companies in China also. lots of people got burned in Ali Baba. You have to know who you are dealing with. There is not such thing as black and white. You can get screwed easily, anywhere.

You are one of the few members of the Vietnamese American forumers which I find rational, otherwise I will not answer such personal attack.

You, in the West, believe that government and institutions are the most decisive factors to the future of a country. That's why you continuously talk about democracy, freedom of media and so on, also in this thread.

However, my belief, which is rooted from "How to build a nation" of Lee Guan Yew, is the quality of people, not institutions, is the most decisive factor to the future of a country, that's why I continuously talk about East Asian / Confucious culture and so on in this thread. Is it any different to your action?

Regarding Indian, you are living in the US and possibly you are working with the top crème of Indian, hence we have different opinions. You may not know that in Vietnam, in a meeting of a very big economic sector, the speaker, who is in a high position in trade, openly says that trade with any Indian companies should be avoided, because they are never honest in payment and delivery terms.

Despite all the bad mouthing about China, if you are in Vietnam, you will see that trade with them only increase year-on-year, and the share of trade with China increase too.

Regarding education, 2015 OECD report says that Vietnam rank 12th worldwide. You should not pick some successful Indian, mostly oversea Indian, in a mass of 1.2 billions, to prove your point. India, Pakistan and Egypt etc. all have received Nobel prize in physics, but Korea, Taiwan, China (except oversea Chinese) never have. Do you mean that quality of education in those countries behind India or Pakistan too?

If I may. I'd like to share my experience on something. I love India and Indian people, but what Aviet said its true, there are a lot of tricky people there in business. When I was in USA, I imported product from India twice and I regretted it twice. I remember hearing from my customs brokers how sometimes Indian companies issue fake shipping documents in order to get payment, sometimes they ship you a container that is just full of stones, etc.

That being said, there are a lot of tricky companies in China also. lots of people got burned in Ali Baba. You have to know who you are dealing with. There is not such thing as black and white. You can get screwed easily, anywhere.

 

[William Hung]

If I may. I'd like to share my experience on something. I love India and Indian people, but what Aviet said its true, there are a lot of tricky people there in business. When I was in USA, I imported product from India twice and I regretted it twice. I remember hearing from my customs brokers how sometimes Indian companies issu fake shipping documents in order to get payment, sometimes they ship you a container that is just full of stones, etc.

That being said, there are a lot of tricky companies in China also. lots of people got burned in Ali Baba. You have to know who you are dealing with. There is not such thing as black and white. You can get screwed easily, anywhere.



If I may. I'd like to share my experience on something. I love India and Indian people, but what Aviet said its true, there are a lot of tricky people there in business. When I was in USA, I imported product from India twice and I regretted it twice. I remember hearing from my customs brokers how sometimes Indian companies issue fake shipping documents in order to get payment, sometimes they ship you a container that is just full of stones, etc.

That being said, there are a lot of tricky companies in China also. lots of people got burned in Ali Baba. You have to know who you are dealing with. There is not such thing as black and white. You can get screwed easily, anywhere.

But I was talking about education, not sure why he would bring the issue about late payments and dishonesty into that. In terms of scientific research and university quality, VN is nowhere on the same level as India.

 

[Carlosa]

But I was talking about education, not sure why he would bring the issue about late payments and dishonesty into that. In terms of scientific research and university quality, VN is nowhere on the same level as India.

That goes without saying. India is a country of big contrast, they have some of the best and some of the worst. When it comes to research and education, they are way up there and at the same time, they have hundreds of millions of uneducated people. Both extremes.

One basic problem for research in Vietnam is that people in that field get paid a crap salary, it totally makes no sense.

 

[BoQ77]

Agreed, there's no pure Black and White.
Many Chinese enterpreneurs build their business by reputation.
But many other use tricks to keep the customers in the ring.

 

[William Hung]

That goes without saying. India is a country of big contrast, they have some of the best and some of the worst. When it comes to research and education, they are way up there and at the same time, they have hundreds of millions of uneducated people. Both extremes.

One basic problem for research in Vietnam is that people in that field get paid a crap salary, it totally makes no sense.

I think you might be confusing the 2 separate issues of having a literate/“educated” population which is also important, but the other which is having a strong research institution/university sector that is required for the advancement of a country (which is what he was originally talking about).

For countries with strong research institutions/university sector, they only require one small fraction of the population to reach and be involved in it. You don’t need the whole population to have education that reach the PhD level. No one expect the average person to be able to attain PhD level of education/analysis skills and produce scientific academic research. But most advanced countries will need a fraction of the population (or attract such people into the country) to reach this level, and the other private sectors can leverage on these kind of research outputs, or these university/institutions can train quality engineers and researchers who would go on to work in the R&D area in other sectors.

Right now, India got this and Vietnam got hardly. Vietnam has a more literate population than india and sure, India will face its own issue because of this. But VN currently doesn’t have something that india has (a strong research university/institutions) which is required if you want to become an advanced country. Having strong high school education level is good and important, but bragging about that and ignoring the difference and importance with research based university education is being short sighted.

 

[AViet]

W

I think you might be confusing the 2 separate issues of having a literate/“educated” population which is also important, but the other which is having a strong research institution/university sector that is required for the advancement of a country (which is what he was originally talking about).

For countries with strong research institutions/university sector, they only require one small fraction of the population to reach and be involved in it. You don’t need the whole population to have education that reach the PhD level. No one expect the average person to be able to attain PhD level of education/analysis skills and produce scientific academic research. But most advanced countries will need a fraction of the population (or attract such people into the country) to reach this level, and the other private sectors can leverage on these kind of research outputs, or these university/institutions can train quality engineers and researchers who would go on to work in the R&D area in other sectors.

Right now, India got this and Vietnam got hardly. Vietnam has a more literate population than india and sure, India will face its own issue because of this. But VN currently doesn’t have something that india has (a strong research university/institutions) which is required if you want to become an advanced country. Having strong high school education level is good and important, but bragging about that and ignoring the difference and importance with research based university education is being short sighted.

Strong research in India? You may be misinformed by the bragging nature of Indian. The Tejas project, starting from 1983, hoping to replace mig 21, is still not completed in 2016. Giving that huge money to Thailand or indonesia, they would do better, let alone Vietnam.

Do you know why Vietnam do not buy any missile from them?

Back to Vietnam again. Sadly, the southern part of Vietnam, have never been Confucious. If you have read "Confucious" by Tran Trong Kim since before 1945, even north part of Vietnam have never truly Confucious in the sense of China and Korea, or even Japan.

People from the South of Vietnam represent Vietnam in the West. But we have different mentality. In the north, we will forever have superior complex, that why we fought the US and won, even in 1966, when USSR threatened us to stop the war, otherwise they would stop giving aid. The North arrested many pro USSR high ranking staff and continued the war.

The sourhern Vietnamese do not have that mentality. Therefore, very difficult to understand each other.

 

[Viet]

Strong research in India? You may be misinformed by the bragging nature of Indian. The Tejas project, starting from 1983, hoping to replace mig 21, is still not completed in 2016. Giving that huge money to Thailand or indonesia, they would do better, let alone Vietnam.

Do you know why Vietnam do not buy any missile from them?

Back to Vietnam again. Sadly, the southern part of Vietnam, have never been Confucious. If you have read "Confucious" by Tran Trong Kim since before 1945, even north part of Vietnam have never truly Confucious in the sense of China and Korea, or even Japan.

People from the South of Vietnam represent Vietnam in the West. But we have different mentality. In the north, we will forever have superior complex, that why we fought the US and won, even in 1966, when USSR threatened us to stop the war, otherwise they would stop giving aid. The North arrested many pro USSR high ranking staff and continued the war.

The sourhern Vietnamese do not have that mentality. Therefore, very difficult to understand each other.

bro normally I don´t want to comment, but since I notice you have a strong black and white attitude toward certain groups of people... you are talking about the west, the east as if you know them for years. have I mentioned I am a southerner? claiming the bold part is not only an insult but wrong. it is unfair if you cite an author to support your claim. do you know what confuciusm is at all?

you should have known while Vietnam adopted Confuciusm as State doctrine until the bitter end, the Nguyen, Imperial China had abandoned the doctrine long ago. as for Korea, the country played for almost of her history no role in Chinese history. similar the case of Taiwan. and if you haven´t noticed, the Nguyen was the one, who united Vietnam, north and south, after a long period of chaos. the Nguyen even viewed Vietnam itself as the country , that maintained Chinese civilisation, while considering China under Manchu rule as barbaric nation ruled by barbarians.

 

[AViet]

Bro

bro normally I don´t want to comment, but since I notice you have a strong black and white attitude toward certain groups of people... you are talking about the west, the east as if you know them for years. have I mentioned I am a southerner? claiming the bold part is not only an insult but wrong. it is unfair if you cite an author to support your claim. do you know what confuciusm is at all?

you should have known while Vietnam adopted Confuciusm as State doctrine until the bitter end, the Nguyen, Imperial China had abandoned the doctrine long ago. as for Korea, the country played for almost of her history no role in Chinese history. similar the case of Taiwan. and if you haven´t noticed, the Nguyen was the one, who united Vietnam, north and south, after a long period of chaos. the Nguyen even viewed Vietnam itself as the country , that maintained Chinese civilisation, while considering China under Manchu rule as barbaric nation ruled by barbarians.

S
Bros, i do not mean to insult anyone, unless someone personal attack me. But most of you have no clue about real condition in Vietnam and generalize everything. You say thar Vietnam is corrupt yes, it is, but how corrupt. You may base your conclusion from International Transparancy, an US controlled organization, which rank North Korea near the bottom. Anyone with brain here can truly believe that North Korea is corrupt. It may be even cleaner than the US and most of western countries. A small, corrupt country will never have ball to stand up against the US.

In Vietnam war, the North may be as clean as Switzeland, even we were so poor. But the South was as corrupt as the phillipines. But to the world, as most countries recognized the South, they would say that Vietnamese was
so corrupt. Which one was truly Vietnamese.

In 1980s, when i was a small child, i visited the family of a army general commander. He lead a quân chủng, i.e equal to vice defense minister, but his daughter still had to do embroidery in the evening for the living of whole family.

Under me now there is a guy who moved to europe since early 1960. Now he is almost 70. When starting work for us, he thought that everyone in our company is corrupt and do not trust us. But now, after 2 years, he understand that we may not be as corrupt as he thought initially.

I do not think the corruption in Vietnam is higher than an average Western countries, like France or Italy, whatever the index from IT says.

 

[William Hung]

W


Strong research in India? You may be misinformed by the bragging nature of Indian. The Tejas project, starting from 1983, hoping to replace mig 21, is still not completed in 2016. Giving that huge money to Thailand or indonesia, they would do better, let alone Vietnam.

Do you know why Vietnam do not buy any missile from them?

Back to Vietnam again. Sadly, the southern part of Vietnam, have never been Confucious. If you have read "Confucious" by Tran Trong Kim since before 1945, even north part of Vietnam have never truly Confucious in the sense of China and Korea, or even Japan.

People from the South of Vietnam represent Vietnam in the West. But we have different mentality. In the north, we will forever have superior complex, that why we fought the US and won, even in 1966, when USSR threatened us to stop the war, otherwise they would stop giving aid. The North arrested many pro USSR high ranking staff and continued the war.

The sourhern Vietnamese do not have that mentality. Therefore, very difficult to understand each other.

Sir, I only use proper data to support what I said, not by using nonsense arguments that Chinese members commonly use here, which seems like the only thing that you have managed to come up with to support your claims (like what you said about Indian bragging, etc.).

Here take a look at this link and see for yourself:

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php

Can you see that scientific research ranking?? India is consistently ranked in the top 10 in most areas in the hard sciences, while VN is no way near it. In fact, VN is even below the likes of Indonesia, Thailand and even Nigeria. I use proper data while you seem to always talk from your imagination.

As for your comments about sourthern Vietnamese, I can actually show you proper sources that many oversea vietnamese criminal organizations are also originated from north vn, even the marijuana growers in Canada I mentioned. But since I am not a sourthern vietnamese, I will let others defend their pride. But its quite clear to me now, it seems that you are the one that don’t know about reality, but just talking from your dream and imagination, such as your imagination that India scientific research is not strong while vn is one of the best in the world.

I think we can stop here.

 

[AViet]

Sorry but I have to respectfully say that you have poor analytical skills. I am not a vietnamese-american and I don’t live in the US. I have never claimed to be one so I don’t know how you have made that conclusion about me. Just by reading that comment alone, I can already tell you have poor judgement and analytical skills.

As for the problems about VN, I have already said it is a waste of time to discuss it here, but I’ll make one comment: you praise the so-called “confucius”/chinese culture of vn and china but that is one of the biggest problem for VN today. For example the problem of corruption, that is not just the problem of govt or politicians but a problem of the mainstream viet culture. The normal people are also involved in corruption, not just the leaders. Change the leaders and the replacements will also be corrupt and cheat. Change the govt and the next one will also be corrupt. Take vietnamese people away from VN and put them in a new developed country, and most of those viet will also be corrupt and cheat! Why do you think the Vietnamese community in Australia, Canada, UK have a bad reputation of being involved in marijuana/drug dealers, criminal activity, cheating the welfare system, etc.? because there are big problems with Vietnamese culture. Most just love to cheat and be corrupt.

Here is a video clip of chinese tourists in a thai hotel buffet, this is your beloved so-called “confucius”/chinese culture:

[video]

[/video]

Wow look at that, what a civilised culture!! Fighting over food like animal. This is the greatest culture in the world according to you? The video describe it right: sleazy, greedy + no manners. But I will change it to sleazy, greedy, unconsiderate to other people. And if you think carefully, the recent VN food safety scandal is caused by this same cultural problem: the traders being sleazy, greedy and unconsiderate to other people! And its no surprise that China have also these food scandals.

So its funny to always see you praise about the so-called “confucius”/chinese culture when in fact it is that exact culture that is actually a big problem. The sooner those Vietnamese gets rid of that “confucius”/chinese culture, the better. And don’t try to associate Singaporean/Korean culture with that kind of culture from mainland China, I know some Singaporean/Korean who would be offended by that.

As for your comment about VN 12th rank in education, that is only a ranking based on assessments for 15 year old kids. Check the much more important rankings for academic scientific research publishing or patents registration, VN is ranked low on that. You place the importance of 15 year old kids test but ignored the importance of university level education, that is a poor analysis.

I think your knowledge about Confucianism is superficial, as you may never read any book about it.

Yes, as the moment, Chinese seems to behave quite rude abroad, whereever they are. But it is the result of rapid industrilalization and getting rich, not a cultural problem. The nouveau riches always behave like that, in the East and the West alike.

If you read Charles Dicken, you can see how primitive and rude the English society was in 19th century. It was also the result of rapid growth, thank to colonization process, when people put money above every things.

Sir, I only use proper data to support what I said, not by using nonsense arguments that Chinese members commonly use here, which seems like the only thing that you have managed to come up with to support your claims (like what you said about Indian bragging, etc.).

Here take a look at this link and see for yourself:

http://www.scimagojr.com/countryrank.php

Can you see that scientific research ranking?? India is consistently ranked in the top 10 in most areas in the hard sciences, while VN is no way near it. In fact, VN is even below the likes of Indonesia, Thailand and even Nigeria. I use proper data while you seem to always talk from your imagination.

As for your comments about sourthern Vietnamese, I can actually show you proper sources that many oversea vietnamese criminal organizations are also originated from north vn, even the marijuana growers in Canada I mentioned. But since I am not a sourthern vietnamese, I will let others defend their pride. But its quite clear to me now, it seems that you are the one that don’t know about reality, but just talking from your dream and imagination, such as your imagination that India scientific research is not strong while vn is one of the best in the world.

I think we can stop here.

Same kind of ranking that says China just copy and India innovative. Should we trust any ranking from West?

In our discussion, most of your points about Vietnam are "i heard that.." or "the West say that..", while my points are what I see and experience in the real life.

As my credit to the West are falling so low, we may never understand each other. Therefore, i stop here.

 

[William Hung]

Same kind of ranking that says China just copy and India innovative. Should we trust any ranking from West?

um NO, that ranking actually puts China in the top 2 ~ 5 where it belongs.

See how the more you comment without looking at proper data the more nonsense you sound? so can we stop now?

 

[Carlosa]

I think you might be confusing the 2 separate issues of having a literate/“educated” population which is also important, but the other which is having a strong research institution/university sector that is required for the advancement of a country (which is what he was originally talking about).

For countries with strong research institutions/university sector, they only require one small fraction of the population to reach and be involved in it. You don’t need the whole population to have education that reach the PhD level. No one expect the average person to be able to attain PhD level of education/analysis skills and produce scientific academic research. But most advanced countries will need a fraction of the population (or attract such people into the country) to reach this level, and the other private sectors can leverage on these kind of research outputs, or these university/institutions can train quality engineers and researchers who would go on to work in the R&D area in other sectors.

Right now, India got this and Vietnam got hardly. Vietnam has a more literate population than india and sure, India will face its own issue because of this. But VN currently doesn’t have something that india has (a strong research university/institutions) which is required if you want to become an advanced country. Having strong high school education level is good and important, but bragging about that and ignoring the difference and importance with research based university education is being short sighted.

I understand the 2 issues, what I was trying to say is that Vietnam does not spend the money for research, its not a priority and considering the terribly low salaries that they pay to researchers, it will never go anywhere.

Vietnam is doing a relatively good job in terms of giving good education to a large segment of the population, certainly much better than India, but India, just because of economies of scale and because of the large population (and because they make it a priority and have the funding), is able to have high quality research centers and elite universities and on that, they definitely leave Vietnam way behind.

That being said, the quality of vietnamese students is very good and if one day the funding is available and they make it a priority, then Vietnam can go back up relatively fast.