Positive impact

Luong Van Tu, former Deputy Minister of Trade:

I just want to mention the following three major advantages:

First, we have learned from other countries’ industrial working style so that by 2020, our country will basically become an industrialized nation. Second, we can screen the cultural imports from other nations. Third, as a signatory to many international agreements, Vietnam has the responsibility and obligation to protect the royalty rights of music, arts and literature as well as that of inventions and innovations. 

Tran Chien Thang, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism:

One of the major advantages is that Vietnam now has many more opportunities to expand its culture, sports and tourism activities domestically, as they become more active in the international exchanges.

Before joining the WTO membership, we had already accelerated those activities internationally, but had not yet defined which areas were subject to the service sector. Now that we’ve become a WTO member, it is time to re-evaluate and develop a strategy for the service sector – a very important contributor to the country’s GDP.

The Tourism promotion programme and Vietnam’s commitment to an open-tourism market to the outside world are good opportunities for the tourism industry to develop and tap into the rich tourism potentials, such as historical relics, tourist attraction areas and attractive landscapes.

The New Open World organization’s decision to list Ha Long Bay on the list of the seven new world natural wonders could be described as an effective catalyst in promoting Vietnam’s culture, sports and tourism internationally.

Challenges

Luong Van Tu, former Deputy Minister of Trade:

The biggest challenge facing the country is how to preserve its cultural identity during the process of global integration. The second is to educate the younger generations to protect and conserve our traditional culture while acquiring the beneficial cultural traditions of other nations. The third is to assist the cultural service enterprises to uphold their role in preserving the country’s cultural identity. And finally it is to get the people involved in the protection of the country’s cultural tradition.

Nguyen Chi Ben, Director of the Institute for Culture and Information:

The intangibles themselves are very fragile. Their existence is closely associated to the people’s memory. In the context of global integration, no doubt, exotic intangibles enter into Vietnam. This could be introduced through foreign visitors, workers and companies coming and working in our country. That’s why it is important to educate the younger generations so that they will be able to do the proper screening by themselves in order to protect the country’s cultural traditions.

It is my suggestion to include in the curriculum in both general school and tertiary education the subject of traditional folk music. This is a good way we “inject the anti-body” into the younger generations to be on course for international integration.

Tran Chien Thang, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism:

The major obstacle we’re facing at present is the lack of professional level staff in the fields of culture, sports and tourism.

When we developed the road map to honor our commitments to the WTO, every one thought of issues like transparency and accountability in policies and accessibility to the market and public services. But for culture, sports and tourism, we want to emphasize the human resource factor. Only by having professional staff can we have high quality services. This is a challenge when we want to change our habits or behaviors. It requires persistency, strong influence from policies and a change in the educational system as well as the society.

The second challenge I want to mention here is at the management skill level, particularly for artists and creators. Many directors of big theaters and ensembles are good performers or artists, but their management skills are weak.

The third challenge is to have proper and sufficient investment in the cultural field, including the building of cultural complexes, tourism spots, arenas for sports and entertainment. It is important to have various stakeholders participate in such activities in the hope of meeting the increasing cultural requirements of the society.