Economic reforms, cultural policy : opportunities and challenges to the arts and culture in Vietnam in the age of globalization

The author investigates social change in Vietnam in the late 1980s-2000s, a transition from a subsidized economy to a market-oriented economy. The author discusses the influences of socioeconomic changes on the operation of the performing arts sector through analyzing changes in cultural policies, opportunities, and challenges confronted by performing arts organizations. The new cultural policy allows arts organizations, arts managers, and artists more opportunities to develop a greater degree of autonomy and more freedom in performing, programming and other artistic activities. The author believes that open policies will motivate Vietnam to develop its own national identity and to participate in cultural exchange with other parts of the world. However, under the impact of global culture, global economics, cuts in state funding, and rapid technological development, the performing arts sector has faced challenges in terms of financial viability, audience development, and balance between commercialization and artistic creativity. The author suggests that privatization should be implemented depending on the art form. Consideration should be given by the Vietnamese government to implementing appropriate funding policies and schemes, as state funding still forms a significant part of public companies' incomes.

Considerations for performing arts organisations in a climate of transition to the open market context in Vietnam

The emergence of a global economy and culture has created a worldwide climate of change since the 1980s. These changes impact on the growth of a national economy and change the significance of sectors in society, for example the service sector, which increasingly accounts for an important part of the economy (Burbules & Torres, 2000). The arts have also been profoundly influenced by social changes, and technological development. While these changes pose new challenges for the arts, most of which struggle for financial viability in an era of globalisation, privatisation and reduced public funding, the developments also open new opportunities for arts companies/artists but require them to possess the capability to identify and adapt to change. This process underlines the necessary new capacities of arts management, arts marketing, arts leaders and artists.

Doi moi - Vietnamese economic reforms in 1986 - provided impetus for change in every sector, resulting in growth of the service sector in Vietnam (UNDP, 2002). Arts organisations in Vietnam found themselves operating in a more competitive environment, forcing them to adjust to this new economic structure. Improved Vietnamese living standards helped to create more demands for a diverse entertainment industry and allowed both the government and individuals to spend more on the arts. A new cultural policy - socialisation (somewhat equivalent to privatisation in Western countries) was implemented in the arts and cultural sector, producing for performing arts organisations (PAOs) as well as a broader cultural milieu in Vietnam, challenges of being self-sustaining but also more autonomy and greater funding diversity. Simultaneously, this led to upgraded artistic standards, improved infrastructure and higher musicians’ salaries; the latter having only experienced slow improvement during the subsidised era.

This paper investigates how social changes affected organisational operations of selected PAOs in Vietnam and Australia. The analysis of how PAOs in each country adjusted to rapid changes will provide experience for learning from each other, particularly for the Vietnamese case. These analyses provide points of discussion, comparison and implications for development of arts management training in Vietnam. Case studies, personal interviews with key participants and policy actors have been used to discern which direction performing arts management should take in order to correspond with Vietnam’s present and future economic situation and its political position in the world.

Changes in arts organisations under the open market economy in Vietnam

The paper examines changes in arts organisations in Vietnam under the context of changes in the arts and culture sector in Vietnam and in the world.

Arts marketing : a new tool for development of the arts sector in the market context in Vietnam

Since the economic reform in Vietnam in 1986 provided more artistic and financial autonomy, the arts community has had more opportunity to develop. It has hence become necessary for arts leaders to obtain management and marketing skills to adapt to the new competitive environment. This necessity became vital when the Vietnamese government sought to tackle the problem of inadequate state funding for arts organisations through its policy of socialisation. This paper sets out to examine how performing arts organisations in Vietnam apply arts marketing strategies to adapt to the market context via empirical data from the cases studied: Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra and Hanoi Youth Theatre. Further, it identifies implications for the development of the sector. Findings indicate that Vietnamese performing arts organisations focus on the role of marketing for organisational development, although there are a lack of resources and a limited knowledge in this area. Thus, training in arts marketing and arts management is needed to maximise capacity of arts leaders in managing their organisations in the changing context.

Restructuring of education and training in Vietnam : a development and application of arts management training in Australia to Vietnam

The adoption of a more market-oriented economy under doi moi has paved the way for Vietnam to record remarkable human development achievements in the past decades. The Vietnamese education system has been undergoing continuous changes for almost twenty years. Key reforms have been implemented in the education and training sector such as privatising the sector; expanding the schooling system, the vocational education and training (VET) system, and higher education. This paper examines: (1) key reforms implemented in the education and training sector, placed in a broader context of economic reforms in Vietnam; (2) a development of arts management training courses in Vietnam to assist cultural organisations to adjust to social changes, as Vietnamese education institutions have not had much experience in designing training courses in arts and culture management; (3) several arts management training courses in Australian institutions to see the possibility to apply training in arts management in Australia to Vietnam. The findings indicate that a variety of management training modes in Australia can be adapted and applied to the Vietnamese training context. Some factors such as differences in culture, education and training systems, shortages in training staff and resources are also considered in this paper.

Professional artists in Vietnam : intellectual property rights, economic and cultural sustainability

The article outlines the legal context for Vietnamese artists that is not discussed in other literature, including the scarcity of data on the art market, the reasons for failure to enforce intellectual property (IP) rights and legal contracts, and the rapid growth of private-sector art dealing that makes an examination of the legal context so essential. The author's field research in Vietnam since 2003 is linked to analyses of Vietnam's art market and to civil codes and other international agreements that determine professional artists’ IP rights. This illustrates the reasons why IP rights have not been enforced or arbitrated in Vietnam. The author includes a discussion of the importance of enforcing IP law for the maintenance of artists’ incomes and careers, the development of a national art market, and for innovation and cultural sustainability in Vietnam.

Microsatellites revealed no genetic differentiation between hatchery and contemporary wild populations of striped catfish, Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Sauvage 1878) in Vietnam

Aquaculture of the striped catfish, Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Sauvage 1878), in Vietnam has become one of the fastest growing primary food production sectors in the world. Although a demand on quantity of fingerlings is currently reached, it is likely that the long term quality of the stocks may be uncertain due to lacking of genetic broodstock management measures. The present study employed five microsatellite loci to investigate levels of genetic variation of the stripped catfish of the current wild stocks as well as of the selected hatcheries in Vietnam. The study included four hatchery populations and two wild populations spawned in 2005 in the Mekong and Bassac Rivers, and one wild population (spawned in 2006) in the Bassac River. The results showed no genetic differentiation among populations as revealed by F_ST and a model-based clustering method. AMOVA also showed no genetic differentiation between pooled wild and pooled hatchery populations while variation within groups was significant. Genetic variation of wild (mean number of alleles per locus, A = 4.80–6.20; allelic richness, A_r = 4.54–5.06; mean effective number of alleles per locus, A_e = 2.86–3.20; observed heterozygosity, H_o = 0.62–0.65; expected heterozygosity, H_e = 0.62–0.64) and hatchery populations (A = 4.60–5.20; A^_r = 4.10–4.83; A_e = 2.80–3.11; H_o = 0.61–0.66; H_e = 0.61–0.64) were not statistically different. There were no evidences for recent genetic bottleneck in all populations. Therefore it is implied that the hatchery stocks of striped catfish in Vietnam were founded from sufficient numbers of brooders and current population size is large. The domestication process is in an early stage.

Current status of farming practices of striped catfish, Pangasianodon hypophthalmus in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Aquaculture of catfish, Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (Sauvage), locally known as “ca tra”, and commonly referred to as striped catfish, river catfish and sutchi catfish, in Vietnam, having recorded a production of 683,000 tonnes in 2007, valued at about 645 million US$ is one of the largest single species based farming system, restricted to a small geographical area, in the world. The product is almost totally exported to over 100 countries as frozen fillets, as an acceptable alternative to white fish. Catfish is farmed mostly in earthen ponds, up to 4 m deep, in nine provinces in the Mekong Delta in South Vietnam. The results of the grow-out system of catfish farming in the Mekong Delta from a survey of 89 farms are presented. The farm size ranged from 0.2 to 30 ha with a mean of 4.09 ha. The frequency distribution of the yield in tonne/ha/crop and tonne/ML/crop corresponded to a normal distribution curve, where 75% of the farms yielded 300 tonnes/ha/crop or more. It was found that the yield per crop was significantly correlated (p < 0.05) to stocking density, pond depth and volume but not to pond surface area. Yields per crop was significantly different (p < 0.05) between upper and lower provinces of the Mekong Delta and water source (river versus channels), amongst others. It was evident that diseases and/or symptoms were observed to occur mostly in accordance with the onset of rains. In this paper the history of the catfish farming in the Mekong Delta is briefly traced, and current harvesting and marketing procedures as well as pertinent social elements of the farming community are dealt with.

Exploratory study into the use of the web as a marketing tool by arts organisations in Vietnam

This paper presents exploratory findings into the use of the web as a marketing tool by arts organisations in Vietnam. The websites of seventeen Vietnamese arts organisations were evaluated to determine current levels of marketing functionality. The findings were analysed from the perspective of the four elements of the marketing mix (price, place, product and promotion). The study found that arts organisations in Vietnam are less sophisticated in using the web as a marketing tool compared with Western counterparts, and that organisation's websites contained basic information catalogues and contact details but limited multimedia functionality. The implications to audience development will be explored through a survey with stakeholders of the seventeen arts organisations in Vietnam as a future research stream.

NB: The terms 'web' and 'Internet' are used interchangeably in this paper.

Changing ideological basis of planning practice in Hanoi, Vietnam

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Performing arts management in a climate of adjustment : case studies from Vietnam and Australia

This paper presents a series of empirical case studies to discuss impacts of economic globalisation on the development of performing arts organisations in Vietnam (Hanoi Youth Theatre and Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra) and Australia (Melbourne Theatre Company and Sydney Symphony Orchestra), and focuses on how Vietnamese organisations have adapted to these changes. The paper also identifies cultural policy implications for the development of the sector; for arts management training in Vietnam so that the sector (and more importantly, the artists) may fully benefit from the open market context. The findings indicate that Vietnamese performing arts organisations have attempted to adapt to the new market context while struggling to balance artistic quality, freedom and financial viability in the new socialist regime. The Australian case studies offered a relevant management model to Vietnamese arts management practice and training.

Fish and fisheries of large and medium-sized reservoirs in Vietnam

The study was undertaken in view of the importance of reservoir fisheries for Vietnam, and to fill gaps in the current knowledge in order to introduce affective management measures to optimise the fish yields from the reservoirs. Eight large and medium sized reservoirs , representing a cross section of reservoirs in Vietnam in the different climatic zones were studied.