[Link} TT Obama nên cắp sách qua học tập ở VN để mở rộng tầm mắt...

Dân tộc VN là đỉnh cao của nhân loại

As strange as it sounds, President Obama could make headway against the U.S.'s economic funk by taking a leaf out of Communist Vietnam's book. On Friday, Hanoi announced a 30% corporate tax break for its ailing small and medium enterprises, as part of a tax relief package of VND29 trillion ($1.39 billion). The plan is far from perfect, but it might be enough to rally the private sector of an economy even more troubled than America's.

Hanoi's immediate goal is to stem this year's flood of bankruptcies—the first four months saw 17,735 businesses shut down or stop production. Besides lowering the corporate tax burden, the plan allows companies to delay certain value-added tax payments for six months. And a temporary 15% cap on lending rates to SMEs will inject credit to help keep companies afloat.

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Vietnam's Finance Minister Vuong Dinh Hue.

While Hanoi's move will save companies and head off a worsening situation in the short term, none of the measures get to the heart of the economy's problems: deadweight state-owned enterprises. Private companies wouldn't be underwater in the first place if dysfunctional SOEs hadn't treated themselves to the lion's share of bank credit. As in neighboring China, Vietnamese businesses without government connections are starved for credit even as state-funded projects swim in it. So when the economy takes a downturn, as Vietnam's has in recent years, private companies go under first, even though they are vastly more efficient.

The relief package is a good stopgap, but China's experience with similar measures is somewhat chastening. Last year the eastern lending hub Wenzhou was struck with a credit crisis not unlike Vietnam's. Beijing did what Hanoi is doing now, make a show of concern and twist the arm of banks to give SMEs credit usually reserved for state-backed projects. Crisis averted—but problem unsolved. As long as SOEs aren't reformed, otherwise-profitable private companies will keep falling through the cracks, and both governments will have to keep stepping in to catch them.

It looks like wider reform isn't in the cards for Vietnam anytime soon, or China for that matter, but it's reassuring that Hanoi's Communist planners know enough to make a tactical strike against bankruptcies and job loss. If only Mr. Obama would do the same.

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