The heart and vision of Mr. Vu Khoan

Signing ceremony of the Vietnam - US Trade Agreement (BTA) between Minister of Trade Vu Khoan and US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky in Washington DC on July 13, 2000

Former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan (1937 - 2023)

He was born in Hanoi. Member of the Party Central Committee, 7th, 8th, 9th tenure; Secretary of the Party Central Committee, 9th tenure; National Assembly Delegate, 11th, 12th tenure; Deputy Prime Minister [August 2002 to June 2006].

During his lifetime, Mr. Vu Khoan was considered by many experts to be a leader and intellectual who was very dedicated to the cause of innovation and economic development of the country. Comments about him can be summed up in four words: "having heart and vision".

Clean and simple leader

Ms. Pham Chi Lan, former Vice President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), expressed her emotion upon hearing the news of the passing of former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan.

According to Ms. Lan, Mr. Vu Khoan is one of the talented leaders, highly intelligent and dedicated to the cause of innovation and development of the country. He is a clean, simple leader, close to everyone, including young people such as university students or officials working in localities.

"He received great respect and love from many people, even those he had just met and interacted with," Ms. Lan shared.

Ms. Lan said she had the opportunity to work with Mr. Vu Khoan when he was working at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a deputy minister. One of her deepest impressions of Mr. Vu Khoan was that he had a clear vision of Vietnam's path of innovation and integration with the world and made great efforts to realize this aspiration.

Mr. Khoan clearly showed his support for mobilizing different forces to participate in integration. In particular, in the 90s of the last century, he supported and created conditions for VCCI to work and open relations with other countries when the situation was still very complicated and difficult.

Mr. Vu Khoan was the one who facilitated Ms. Pham Chi Lan's first business trip to Israel in 1992 and then supported the reception of an Israeli delegation to visit Vietnam. Thanks to that support, Vietnam and Israel established official diplomatic relations in July 1993.

One of Mr. Vu Khoan’s greatest achievements was promoting trade relations with the United States. According to Ms. Lan, since 1976, the United States has been in contact with Vietnam through the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and surrounding countries. At that time, Mr. Vu Khoan, along with other leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, immediately supported and promoted the establishment of relations with the United States through the Chamber of Commerce.

"It was a long process, but the direction of the leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at that time such as Mr. Nguyen Co Thach, Vu Khoan... contributed significantly to later lobbying the US to lift the embargo on Vietnam, moving towards normalizing relations between the two sides," Ms. Lan recalled.

According to Ms. Lan, Mr. Vu Khoan also played an important role in the early stages in helping to create conditions and promote economic relations between Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan.

History has proven that our entire revolutionary career is thanks to the youth, however, to "reach the peak", the youth need "6 pairs of T's" including: aspiration - reality, will - progress, mind - wisdom, skill - proficiency, being human - kindness, movement - practicality.

Former Deputy Prime Minister VU KHOAN speaks at a youth conference in March 2021.

Help Vietnam go out to sea

Mr. Vu Khoan is also a leader who has made many contributions to the process of innovation and integration of Vietnam. One of his major contributions was participating in the negotiation of the Vietnam - US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), signed in Washington DC in July 2000.

According to Ms. Lan, the BTA negotiation process was carried out before Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) but was based on WTO principles and regulations. The negotiation process was very hard and difficult, but the result was the signing of a bilateral agreement.

At that time, as Minister of Trade, Mr. Vu Khoan was asked by the Government to go to the US to complete the agreement and promote bilateral relations. Signing the BTA with the US was an extremely important step, creating a foundation for Vietnam to promote negotiations with other countries to join the WTO.

Recalling the process of negotiating to join the WTO, Ms. Lan said that this was very difficult, complicated, and arduous when Vietnam's economy at that time was still half state-owned - half market, while the 35 WTO member countries participating in the negotiations each had different interests and perspectives on Vietnam's economy.

However, with his acumen and flexibility, Mr. Vu Khoan and other leaders directed the negotiating team to work very well, helping Vietnam officially become a member of the WTO in early 2007. "This is an extremely important step for Vietnam in multilateral integration on a global scale, or in other words, stepping out into the open sea," Ms. Lan expressed.

Ms. Lan further emphasized that during the WTO accession negotiations, in addition to foreign affairs, people like Mr. Vu Khoan made important contributions to domestic affairs, specifically contributing opinions on the need to amend Vietnam's laws to be compatible with the WTO.

During the four years of negotiations to join the WTO (2002 - 2006), nearly 100 Vietnamese economic laws were renewed, amended and supplemented to help join the WTO, creating an institutional foundation for economic reform, creating momentum for the country's development.

Work till the end of life

Ms. Phan Thuy Thanh, former spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a person who has many memories of former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan, was heartbroken and shocked to hear of his passing because she had just met him on May 24 when he met with officials from many periods of the Department of Information and Press of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"I can't say anything at this moment. I didn't expect him to leave so soon. But perhaps he was a man who lived wholeheartedly for his country, for his career, with a pure heart, so he passed away peacefully, gently, in the love and regret of so many people. For the officials in the diplomatic sector, the generation that he directly taught and encouraged, this is a great pain and emptiness" - Ms. Thuy Thanh emotionally shared with Tuoi Tre.

"What can I say about him? He was a man of great intelligence, lofty yet very simple, as close as a brother in the family. I only have a few words: extremely admiring, extremely respectful, extremely sad and extremely loving" - she added.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Khai, former Vietnamese ambassador to the Middle East, said that despite his old age and poor health, former Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan still participated in research work and "worked until the last moments of his life".

Mr. Khai recalled that about two weeks ago, he was very surprised to receive a phone call from Mr. Vu Khoan. At that time, Mr. Khoan called to ask about the current situation in the Middle East for an article on a related topic. "He asked me in great detail about the summit in the Arab region, how Syria rejoined the Arab League, and how Iran and Saudi Arabia reconciled. At that time, he was still very clear-headed and knowledgeable," Ambassador Khai recalled.

Ambassador Nguyen Quang Khai said he was very impressed with the former deputy prime minister's simplicity, such as dressing very simply in khaki pants and ordinary sandals, and even when appearing on TV he only wore a tunic.