Hearts with same roots beat to same rhythm

16:33' 27/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – “I feel the President has created a common rhythm for hearts that were previously not on the same front but have the same roots of Vietnam,” said Minister of Post and Telematics Do Trung Ta. Minister Do Trung Ta and President Nguyen Minh Triet in the US. VietNamNet Bridge had a quick interview with Minister of Telematics Do Trung Ta, who accompanied President Nguyen Minh Triet to the US, about his feeling about the trip at the airport in Los Angeles, the US. You have been in many top-ranking Vietnamese missions to many countries. What were the special aspects of this trip? This is the fifth time I have come to the US. The first time was in 1989 when the two countries hadn’t established diplomatic relations yet. For me, this trip is a historical event because this is the first time a Vietnamese chief of state has paid an official visit to the US, opening a new period of cooperation in all fields. You were present at the meeting between President Nguyen Minh Triet and Vietnamese Americans in Orange County, California. How did you feel about the meeting? President Nguyen Minh Triet had a very convincible speech. I feel the President has created a common rhythm for hearts that were previously not on the same front but have the same roots of Vietnam. The President delivered a sincere speech to welcome the return of overseas Vietnamese. At this moment, what do you think about the future of Vietnam? First of all, I’m very proud because in the political arena, Vietnam and the US are equal in cooperation relations, though Vietnam still faces many difficulties. Secondly, when I listened to speakers, especially speakers at the meeting with Harvard University, praising the development of the Internet in Vietnam, from the lowest level in the region in 2000 to the highest position at present, I was very proud. But that pride is not for the telecom sector only, but for Vietnam after years of war. American scholars commented that Vietnam’s telecom sector had developed very fast. As Minister of Telematics, could you reveal the development strategy of the post and telecom sector in the coming time? We have quickly developed telecom because telecom is the infrastructure for the development of other fields. Americans said that all industries must be based on the development of information technology and communications. Different from other meetings with foreign entrepreneurs, I heard no complaint about Vietnam’s telecom, including prices. The upcoming mission of the telecom sector is continuing to build modern information infrastructure to meet the development requirement of the country. What about cooperation with the US and what we have to learn from the US to build a modern telecom industry? In the past we only mentioned cooperation to exploit telecom services with AT&T, MCI, US Sprint but now we have good relations with many big US groups such as Intel, Microsoft, IBM, Sun, Motorola, Cisco, HP, Oracle, Soma to boost application and development of information technology. The Internet, education and the young population of Vietnam will become special tools to develop the country at a higher speed and greater quality. I met with the US Under Secretary of Commerce and the ambassador of information and communication technology of the US Department of State and we agreed to organise dialogues between Vietnamese and strong US IT firms. The first dialogue will take place in September 2007 in Vietnam. Other dialogues will be held in the US, with the participation of the Ministry of Post and Telematics of Vietnam and the Department of Commerce and Department of State of the US. My suggestion about cooperation was accepted by US partners. Accordingly, when American firms come to Vietnam to attend the first dialogue, they and their Vietnamese partners will have to identify fields of cooperation and report on the results of cooperation at the second dialogue, and so on. When cooperating with a country that has a hi-tech industry and many inventions like the US, we are approaching source technologies so we have to grasp this opportunity. With the young power and the dynamics of Vietnam’s information and communication sector, I believe that this cooperation will develop rapidly like cooperation between the two countries to exploit telecom services so far. Viet Nam Net