Today’s guest is Eddy Malesky, a Professor of Political Economy at Duke University who focuses on Vietnam. Eddy is also the primary author and lead researcher of the annual Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). He played an instrumental role in the creation of the PCI in 2005 and remains heavily involved, offering great insight and nuance on the relationship between sub-national government actions and local business communities. We discussed the concept of ‘fencebreaking,’ the PCI’s background...
Jun 16, 2024•50 min
Today’s guest is Stuart McDonald, co-founder of Travelfish and author of the excellent Couchfish newsletter. Stuart has been traveling around and writing about Southeast Asia for about three decades and is also working on a Master’s in Responsible Tourism Management. He’s written previously about sustainable tourism in Vietnam as well. Stuart recently visited Phú Quốc for the first time in a while and I wanted to get his thoughts on the place through a sustainable lens. If you’re expecting a ros...
Jun 09, 2024•51 min
Today’s guest is Nuno Ribeiro, Senior Lecturer of Tourism and Hospitality Management at RMIT University Vietnam. We discussed the importance of sustainable tourism development, the need for a qualified tourism workforce and Vietnam’s shortage in this area, frequent comparisons to Thailand from domestic media, factors driving the country’s dismal visitor return rate, and the understated economic impact of tourism. Related Links: Phú Quốc's Rapid Decline ( Vietnam Weekly ) Vietnam posts nearly 11...
Jun 02, 2024•36 min
Today’s guest is Giles Cooper, a Partner at the international law firm Allens based in Hanoi who specializes in issues around energy policies and regulations. We discussed the pending decree on direct power purchase agreements and how this will impact major manufacturers, the dramatic change this will bring to Vietnam’s electricity market, Power Development Plan 8’s LNG and offshore wind targets, and where all of these issues may go over the next few years. Related Links: Draft decree on DPPA co...
May 26, 2024•34 min
Today’s guest is Timen Swijtink, founder of both CoffeeTrace and Lacàph Coffees of Việt Nam . The first half of our conversation covers CoffeeTrace, a new project aimed at providing a coffee farmer-centric EUDR data collection and traceability solution to both farmers and traders. We discuss the challenges farmers in Vietnam and other countries that export agricultural goods to the EU face in meeting new rules and what can be done to help, as well as the current turmoil in the international coff...
May 19, 2024•34 min
Today’s guest is Sarah Goring, Country Director for the Mines Advisory Group , or MAG. The organization is marking 25 years of operations in Vietnam, entirely in Quảng Bình and Quảng Trị. They have disposed of over 390,000 explosive items since 1999, ranging from small cluster bomblets to huge 500-pound bombs like one that was cleared in Đồng Hới in early April. We talked about the evolution of MAG’s work in Vietnam over time; the importance of risk education; the cross-cutting impacts of UXO ac...
May 12, 2024•33 min
Today’s guest is Bicky Nguyen, co-founder and business development director of Cricket One , a startup aiming to create sustainable, healthy food products sourced from crickets. We discussed the company’s background and why Vietnam is the perfect base for farming insects on a large scale, the European Union’s approval of Cricket One’s products as a Novel Food and the bizarre backlash this generated, their ongoing push into Singapore, and where Bicky sees the business going as we face the need to...
May 05, 2024•35 min
Today’s guest is Dr. Prashanth Parameswaran, author of the excellent ASEAN Wonk newsletter, a fellow at the Wilson Center, a senior columnist at The Diplomat , and an instructor at institutions including the State Department and the Department of Defense. He has a deeply nuanced view of defense, economic, and diplomatic issues across Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. We discussed Vietnam’s ‘bamboo diplomacy’ and deft balancing of China and the U.S.; its role in broader Southeast Asia as countri...
Apr 21, 2024•48 min
According to The World Bank, trade was worth 186% of Vietnam’s GDP in 2022, one of the highest rates in the world - this means the value of the country’s traded goods is worth far more than the national GDP, currently just over $400 billion. Global logistics and shipping, therefore, are vital to continued economic growth. Today’s guest is Dr. Majo George, a senior lecturer at RMIT University Vietnam’s business school focusing on global logistics and supply chain management. We talked about how i...
Apr 14, 2024•39 min
Today’s guests are Mimi Vu and Van Ly, partners at Raise Partners , a collaborative partnership sharing expertise with organizations that contribute to the betterment of humanity. We discussed their diverse professional backgrounds, especially in fundraising, and how this brought them into the ESG space; criticisms of ESG from some corners; the importance of multi-stakeholder cooperation in addressing environmental, social, and governance issues; how Vietnam’s challenges present huge investment ...
Apr 07, 2024•40 min
Today’s guest is Trang Nguyen , Southeast Asia Lead at the Climateworks Centre in Melbourne. Her background as an economist spans the public, private, and development sectors - including the UK in Vietnam, KPMG, and GIZ - giving her unique insight into energy investment and financing. We discussed the opportunities and challenges of Vietnam’s net-zero commitment, the Just Energy Transition Partnership and its potential role in catalyzing clean energy financing, the importance of project bankabil...
Mar 31, 2024•34 min
Today’s guest is Mai Nguyen, a civil engineer by training who has studied and worked around the world and is currently based in Vietnam. Mai is, in her own words, an entrepreneur, a sustainability/ESG/climate resilience advisor, an occasional investor, and a work-in-progress creator. I first came across her thanks to a recent Mekong Eye article about Vietnamese architects designing climate-friendly homes for the local context. Her diverse interests are evident through our conversation, which cov...
Mar 24, 2024•33 min
Today’s guest is Nguyen Khac Giang, a Visiting Fellow at the Vietnam Studies Programme under the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and one of the sharpest Vietnamese analysts out there. We discussed the historical context of the ‘blazing furnace,’ the unprecedented centralization and institutionalization of power that is driving the campaign, how a 2018 regulation opened the private sector up to corruption investigations, the impact on performance-based legitimacy, and the possibility of a ‘Đổi Mới ...
Mar 17, 2024•39 min
Today’s guest is Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia Program Director at the Washington D.C.-Based Stimson Center, project lead of the Mekong Dam Monitor, and author of the 2019 book Last Days of the Mighty Mekong . This wide-ranging conversation covers the proposed Funan Techo Canal in Cambodia (2:45) , how the Mekong Dam Monitor is doing a job regional governments should be doing (20:40) , a new dam that China has not announced the completion of (25:20) , the role of Laos in the river’s declining heal...
Mar 10, 2024•42 min
Today’s guests are Truong Thuy Ngan, Communications Lead at Saigon Children’s Charity; and Damien Roberts, the organization’s Executive Director. We discussed how the longstanding charity - now in its 32nd year - has evolved over time, including: * Campaigns to inspire future generations of female leaders in Vietnam * Efforts to raise awareness of mental health while supporting families with neurodivergent children * How international economic conditions and new regulations have impacted fundrai...
Mar 03, 2024•33 min
Today’s guest is Tu Phuong Nguyen , a lecturer of Asian Studies at the University of Melbourne. Tu’s research focuses on labor in Vietnam, particularly the country’s social insurance system. We discussed the precarious nature of factory work, even in the vaunted tech manufacturing sector, the challenges facing social insurance after 2023’s mass layoffs in the garment and footwear industries, and the government’s troubled efforts to reform this system. Keeping these issues in mind is vital in the...
Feb 25, 2024•28 min
Today’s guest is Michael Brosowski, Founder & Strategic Director of the Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation. Blue Dragon works to rescue Vietnamese people from slavery, homelessness, and extreme poverty and then works with them in the long term so they can heal from trauma, injustice, and disadvantage. We discussed how the organization’s work has evolved over the last two years, the rise of scam compounds across Southeast Asia and how they are driving new forms of human trafficking, the impact...
Feb 18, 2024•33 min
I’m thrilled to announce the relaunch of The Vietnam Weekly Podcast, which ran for seven episodes way back in 2021. The first new episode will be released next Monday, February 19. Every two weeks, I’ll talk to people doing fascinating work in - or about - Vietnam. Initial topics include the anti-corruption campaign, scam compounds across Southeast Asia, the quest to write a comprehensive Vietnamese recipe book, efforts to fight dengue by using mosquitoes against themselves, and the environmenta...
Feb 11, 2024•1 min
My guest on the latest Vietnam Weekly Podcast episode is Thao Lam, Executive Director of the LIN Center for Community Development. Thao has deep experience with NGOs and grassroots organizations, and we talked about how this sector has responded to the end of lockdown in southern Vietnam, as well as the challenges it still faces. For example, it is easy to raise funding and get community involvement in the midst of a severe crisis, but creating sustainable action on long-term issues is more diff...
Dec 08, 2021•29 min
The Vietnam Weekly Podcast is back after some delay with guest Dr. Leigh Jones, Head of Training at the Oxford Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) in Ho Chi Minh City. Leigh has a PhD in Immunology and is one of my go-to sources for information related to COVID-19 vaccines and other scientific issues related to the pandemic. We discussed the different types of Covid vaccines and how they work; the significance of the timing between your first and second doses; the global debate over the need for boos...
Sep 17, 2021•36 min
If you’re anything like me, you are really missing Vietnamese food during lockdown. I’m a decent home cook, but with all street food shut down, I have been craving my favorites, particularly cơm tấm and bún thịt nướng . With no end in sight to social distancing regulations, I talked to cookbook author Andrea Nguyen of Viet World Kitchen to get some pointers on making Vietnamese food at home. We covered the basic ingredients you’ll need in your kitchen (4:30) before discussing a range of dishes, ...
Aug 09, 2021•31 min
I’m pleased to present the fourth Vietnam Weekly Podcast episode, which is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever podcasts are found. My guest is Neagha Leonard, project director of the Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project . He has lived on Cat Ba since 2014 and is a leading expert on the island, its biodiversity, and the numerous issues facing both human residents and flora and fauna. I strongly recommend following the organization’s Facebook page, linked above, which provides ver...
Jul 30, 2021•47 min
As discussed in the Vietnam Weekly on Monday , Ho Chi Minh City’s hard lockdown is creating economic pain for many, particularly those on the margins of society who rely on daily income to survive - whether from selling lottery tickets, running a food cart outside a factory, working as a non-contract day laborer, or something similar. With this work now impossible as the city fights a huge COVID-19 outbreak, many people are in a fairly desperate situation: no income, family support networks stre...
Jul 15, 2021•49 min
On the second episode of the Vietnam Weekly podcast, I spoke with Beth Lopez, the co-founder and CEO of Docosan . This website/app connects prospective patients with hundreds of doctors in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Da Nang, and allows people to book appointments without going through the process of dealing with a hospital or clinic admin team. I’ve used Docosan several times and it is hugely helpful for foreigners, who often go to the expensive international-focused clinics simply out of perce...
Jul 02, 2021•16 min
Good morning, and welcome to the first episode of the Vietnam Weekly Podcast, a new addition to this project. Twice a month, I will interview people from a broad spectrum of industry and society, either working in Vietnam, or with a focus on the country from overseas. If you are already a newsletter subscriber, you’ll receive new episodes in your inbox just like the weekly updates, and this will also be available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast platforms soon. If you aren’t a subscr...
Jun 17, 2021•35 min
