US embassy cable - 03HOCHIMINHCITY1141

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HO CHI MINH CITY 001141 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR BCLTV, DRL/IRF 
 
E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, ECON, SOCI, PGOV, PREL, EFIS, VM, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: CA MAU PROVINCE: AT THE END OF THE LINE, BUT BLESSED BY 
UNCLE HO 
 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY.  Lying at the southern tip of Vietnam, Ca Mau 
is one of the country's more isolated provinces.  Heavily 
dependent upon aquaculture, especially shrimp, the province has 
enjoyed strong recent economic growth.  While the province 
actively touts its natural resources and advantages, it has 
received little foreign direct investment, and plans for economic 
diversification are vague, with many projects being run by the 
central government in Hanoi.  Based on discussions with provincial 
officials, as well as reports from Protestant leaders in HCMC, the 
province has yet to make its peace with unregistered Protestant 
house churches, an issue DPO discussed at length with the heads of 
the Union of Friendship Organizations and the Committee for 
Religious Affairs (CRA) during a recent visit to the province. 
DPO and Poloff also met with Ca Mau People's Committee Chairman Vo 
Thanh Binh; representatives of the provincial Department of 
Planning and Investment (DPI); and leadership from the Department 
of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs (DOLISA).  This was 
ConGen's first official visit to Ca Mau since 1998.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (U) As Vietnam's southernmost province, Ca Mau lays claim to 
the country's longest seacoast, largest underwater forest (second 
largest in the world after the Amazon), and largest area for 
aquaculture.  Aquaculture, especially shrimp, composes the bulk of 
Ca Mau's economy.  In the first nine months of 2003, Ca Mau 
exported 60 tons of aquaculture products, including 45 tons of 
shrimp (worth $350 million), primarily to the U.S. and Japan.  Ca 
Mau's private sector exports a total of 56 products to the U.S. 
market.  The provincial poverty rate, according to September 2003 
estimates, is below 10 percent.  The population is primarily 
ethnic Vietnamese Kinh, but the province is home to many of 
Vietnam's minority groups, including 43,000 ethnic Chinese and 
30,000 ethnic Khmer.  According to provincial officials, Ho Chi 
Minh said that Ca Mau has the blessing of the gods, the blessing 
of good land, and the blessing of a harmonious people. 
 
3.  (SBU) Because of Ca Mau's dependence on aquaculture, 
provincial officials repeatedly raised the issue of past and 
(potentially) future U.S. anti-dumping cases involving catfish and 
shrimp.  Chairman Binh insisted that Vietnamese producers were not 
engaged in dumping, and called on the USG to reduce trade barriers 
to benefit both countries.  Other officials attributed the 
relatively rapid drop in poverty over the last three years to a 
shift by small landholders from growing rice to growing rice and 
raising shrimp. 
 
4.  (SBU) According to the provincial DPI, Ca Mau attracts little 
foreign direct investment, and has only two FDI projects, both 
under $1 million.  Ca Mau officials attributed this to Ca Mau's 
relatively remote location.   They also acknowledged that both the 
provincial government and the GVN must do more to improve 
infrastructure.  The central government runs all major development 
projects in the province, including the upgrade to Ca Mau's 
airport, construction of a major fertilizer plant, and oil and gas 
exploration off the coast.  The provincial DPI chairman could 
provide only the sketchiest details on these projects.  He knew, 
for instance, that Vietnam Airlines is scheduled to begin flights 
from Ho Chi Minh City to the province in December 2003, but did 
not know how often those flights would run. 
 
5.  (SBU) The provincial government is developing a master plan 
for eco-tourism in Ca Mau, including plans for area beaches, 
national forests, local bird sanctuaries, and marshes.  Once the 
plan has been completed, the provincial authorities will submit it 
to the GVN for approval and then release a book and call for 
foreign investors.  Other plans to diversify Ca Mau's economy away 
from aquaculture include developing labor-intensive industries, 
such as textiles, high tech assembly, and shipbuilding. 
Provincial authorities provided few specifics, however, and talked 
mostly about needing to attract investment and provide job 
training and placement. 
 
6.  (SBU) According to the heads of the Union of Friendship 
Organizations and the Committee for Religious Affairs, Ca Mau's 
four religious groups (Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, and Cao 
Dai) have excellent relations with each other and the provincial 
government, and often celebrate each other's festivals.  They said 
three Protestant churches affiliated with the GVN-recognized 
Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam are legally registered and 
able to operate freely, but claimed that no unregistered house 
churches operate in the province.  Citing Decree 26, which says a 
religious group must have a unified organization and structure to 
operate, they said any unregistered group would be unacceptable. 
Worship by a single family at home, however, was not a problem, 
they stressed. 
 
7.  (U) DPO raised the specific case of six house churches which 
Post contacts in the Protestant community reported had been closed 
in Dam Doi district, but officials denied these claims.  A heated 
but still friendly debate followed about different approaches to 
religious freedome and, specifically, the need to include 
unregistered house churches as legitimate places of worship when 
safeguarding religious freedom.  At one point, the head of the 
Union of Friendship Organizations, implicitly referring to the 
closing of house churces, let slip that he "knew the village," 
which had not been named.  He said the people there already had a 
registered church and he could not understand why they needed 
another.  The two officials also expressed frustration that the 
widespread freedom in the province for all groups to practice 
religion at home and in registered churches, pagodas, etc., was 
not being acknowledged.  DPO made clear that the religious freedom 
accorded to organized religions and individuals was important and 
appreciated, but that freedom of religion extended to all forms of 
religious practice, including informal gatherings in small groups, 
such as house churches. 
 
8.  (SBU) While driving back to HCMC, DPO and Poloff made an 
unannounced stop at a legal Protestant church in Bac Lieu 
province, just past the Ca Mau border, and spoke with Pastor 
Nguyen Khac Nhan (protect), who has been a pastor in Vietnam for 
over 40 years.  He is not only the pastor of the legal church, but 
also the head of 39 unregistered house congregations.  His legal 
congregation included 3185 members, 20 from Ca Mau, and nearby 
house churches had an additional 440 members.  Of his ten 
children, five had themselves become pastors, and one was serving 
in Ca Mau.  In Bac Lieu and Ca Mau, he claimed, house church 
Protestants were often followed by local authorities, but 
harassment was not serious and believers were not afraid.  House 
church members occasionally used the legal church for large 
celebrations as well, without any problems.  He himself has been 
called in by the police to answer questions about his activities 
after leading services at house churches, while he said his 
relations with local officials are generally good and he has had 
complete freedom to run services as he wishes in his legal church. 
He had heard reports of the house church closings in Ca Mau, but 
thought their existence was generally tolerated.  He said there 
were more significant problems in the Central Highlands, where he 
also had connections. 
 
9.  (SBU) COMMENT: Ca Mau is an isolated province, and the 
provincial government sends conflicting signals.  Chairman Binh 
used to be the Commander in Chief of Ca Mau's military command 
before becoming the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee. 
His bearing and interactions were very formal and non-committal, 
almost stereotypical of the classic Communist official.  Unusually 
for a People's Committee official, he touted "national defense" as 
one of the province's strengths, though he did not elaborate and 
backtracked quickly when asked if there were any specific security 
concerns in the area.  Likewise, the head of the Committee for 
Religious Affairs had never met with a foreign official before, 
appeared somewhat nervous and seemed unfamiliar with the house 
church model as a legitimate, recognized form of worship.  On the 
other hand, the head of the provincial DPI talked about efforts to 
reduce bureaucracy and attract businesses and proudly claimed that 
businesses could now obtain licenses in a single day. 
 
10.  (SBU) COMMENT CONTINUED: One reason the GVN may be handling 
Ca Mau's major development projects directly is because of 
corruption.  Chairman Binh's predecessor was removed from office 
in 2001 for a corruption scandal involving local businesses.  More 
troubling is an October 22, 2003 vernacular news article reporting 
that 50 out of 65 provincial government offices in Ca Mau were 
guilty of some form of financial misconduct. 
 
YAMAUCHI