By Mehmet Enes Beşer Vietnam’s street-level anti-corruption movement—popularly referred to as the blazing furnace campaign—has been extremely popular within the country and overseas. The campaign, initiated by Communist Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng, has brought down dozens of senior officials, including cabinet ministers, provincial governors, and managers of state-owned companies, since its outset. There is political intent behind the ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Vietnam has been the fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia over the last decade or so, experiencing high-speed industrialization, export-led growth, and improved regional standing. However, the progress has had an astronomically high environmental cost. Coal continues to dominate the energy mix and is the single most important cause of all air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Labor export has been a progressive solution to Vietnam’s demographic and economic pressures for decades. Overseas workers’ remittances are significantly responsible for country income, curtail unemployment, and often fund investment in housing, education, and healthcare by their families. Foreign work is the portal to economically transformative mobility for some young Vietnamese, especially youth from rural provinces. ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Vietnam is at a crossroads in its development trajectory. With almost 70% of its population within the under-40 cohort, Vietnam has a demographic window that other countries would be jealous of. Its young, energetic, and rapidly urbanizing working population has catapulted Vietnam to become one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies. But to maintain that rate of ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) are a new ambitious model of climate finance—a call to unlock billions of dollars to facilitate developing economies to transition away from coal without abandoning livelihoods and support sustainable development. Two of Southeast Asia’s most coal-dependent countries, Vietnam and Indonesia, were among the earliest to sign JETP agreements with donor governments ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Vietnam is the top nation most likely to become the world’s greatest champion of making plastic pollution a pending threat. Producing over 3.9 million tons of plastic rubbish annually, and the majority of it running into rivers, coastlines, and eventually the ocean, the problem has been a public health emergency and source of shame for a ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer As Russia-China strategic alignment becomes increasingly solidified with yet further heightening passion—based on converging geopolitical interests crossing and heightening economic interdependence—the world of Southeast Asia has watched with keen interest. Among them, however, Vietnam will be the hardest hit by the impact of the solidified axis. While other nations in the region have enjoyed friendly relations ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Southeast Asia’s most lifeblood river, the Mekong, is being confronted with increasingly intense ecological and geopolitical stresses. Hydropower dams, especially on the upper Mekong, have controlled its flow, disturbed ecosystems, and compromised the food and water security of millions. Vietnam, located at the river’s delta and therefore most vulnerable to upstream decisions, has rightly made water ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Vietnam, customary pro of sound economic policy and geopolitics three-holing, is diving into a fresh world of international scrutiny: rare earths. While the globe franticly strives to gain access to the dominant minerals found in electric vehicles and vans, windmills, and high-end electronics, Vietnam’s unexploited reserves of rare earth among the world’s best outside China are ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Vietnam is now the most prospective offshore player in Southeast Asia for wind development. With over 3,000 kilometers of coastline, moderate winds, and a growing energy demand, the country naturally stands to emerge as an area source of renewables. The government has also spotted this opportunity, with a 6 gigawatt (GW) 2030 target for offshore wind—a ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer The Mekong River of Cambodia is more than a geographical entity-it’s a life-giving vein that sustains the country, its economy, and its culture. The Mekong waters rice paddies, feeds fish, irrigates crops, and supports tens of millions of rural Cambodian livelihoods along over 480 kilometers of Cambodian terrain. It’s not just a river; it’s Cambodia’s guarantee ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Vietnam’s rise as a textile and garment behemoth has been nothing less than phenomenal. From a war-torn agrarian economy to being an emerging one of the world’s top apparel exporters, Vietnam has managed to attract the interest of global brands searching for low-cost manufacturing options beyond China. Its factories produce it all, from the fast fashion ...