US embassy cable - 04HANOI105

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HANOI 000105 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, ECON, SOCI, VM 
SUBJECT:  STILL REUNIFYING AFTER ALL THESE YEARS: 
            THE NEW HO CHI MINH HIGHWAY 
 
REF:  A.  HANOI 064   B. HANOI 051   C. HANOI 020 
 
-     D.  01 HANOI 3086 
 
1.  (U)  Summary.  Construction of a new major highway 
system designed further to link northern and southern 
Vietnam and to increase access to mountainous areas is 
underway.  The portion through central Vietnam is largely 
completed -- with some major exceptions -- and provincial 
and local officials are optimistic about its impact on 
economic and social development in these poor areas. 
Environmental concerns -- notably landslides, flooding, and 
forest degradation -- are likely to remain problems.  New 
inflows of migrants may also heighten ethnic tensions over 
land tenure.  Increased narcotics smuggling from Laos and 
Cambodia may also prove to be a growing issue.  Despite 
problems, the new highway should improve domestic 
transportation links, increase access to electricity and 
social services, and contribute to the GVN's goals of 
national unity and solidarity.  End summary. 
 
2.  (U)  Little in Vietnam's geography -- with its thin, 
lengthy shape often intersected by rugged mountainous areas 
-- or its colonial history -- during which the French 
divvied up Vietnam into Amman, Tonkin, and Cochinchina -- or 
its mid-20th century civil war provided much of a basis for 
genuine national unification or reunification.  Its often- 
disastrous economic and social policies in the first decade 
after 1975 were bitterly divisive and led to major refugee 
outflows.  Only since the introduction of "doi moi" in 1986, 
the military pull-out from Cambodia in the late 1980s, and 
the quest for international donor assistance and foreign 
investment beginning in the early 1990s has the GVN pursued 
a more genuinely successful push for fuller national 
integration and the building of a new national identity. 
 
3.  (U)  Ref D described the limitations of National Route 
No. 1, the sole major vehicular artery linking the various 
regions of Vietnam, often in literal parallel with the sole 
north-side rail link.  In an effort to expand regional 
links, reduce transport reliance on Route 1, and open up new 
areas for cultivation and population, the GVN has initiated 
an ambitious program to turn the wartime "Ho Chi Minh Trail" 
into a modern highway.  By 2010, the new road is expected to 
run from Cao Bang province (along the China border) to Ca 
Mau, at Vietnam's southern tip.  Construction crews are 
still putting the final touches on the central stage between 
Nghe An and Kontum provinces.  Pol/C and ConGenoff recently 
traveled along this stretch and met with provincial and 
local officials and residents (refs a-c report on 
substantive discussions). 
 
The provincial views 
-------------------- 
 
4.  (U)  According to Ha Tinh provincial officials, the new 
highway should be a spur to economic development of the 
western highland areas of the province, despite some 
concerns already about environmental degradation.  New 
access to markets and new contact with other provinces are 
also expected to help decrease the rate of poverty in these 
formerly inaccessible areas, they noted.  Quang Tri 
officials separately admitted new environmental problems -- 
notably landslides, building in forested areas -- but 
claimed actively to be undertaking measures to mitigate 
these "negative influences."  They, too, cited new market 
access by highlanders as having a big economic and social 
boost for local living standards.  In addition, the process 
of building the highway has made it easier to provide access 
to electricity and communications, with many highland 
families newly able to watch television and follow national 
broadcasting. 
 
5.  (U)  Dong Giang district officials in Quang Nam province 
pointed to drastically shortened travel times within the 
province and between Quang Nam and other provinces as a real 
boon to local life and to improvements of rural incomes. 
They said that they were now "wholeheartedly" trying to take 
advantage of these transport links to promote economic and 
social development. 
In Kontum, where the new Ho Chi Minh Highway comes to a 
rather abrupt end in the northwestern district of Ngoc Hoi 
(it then rejoins an existing local road), officials called 
the continuation of this project between 2004 and 2010 as 
the "next step" in provincial development, for which major 
amounts of assistance from the central government will be 
necessary.  They claimed not to know the specific timetable 
for onward construction, however.  Officials in neighboring 
Gia Lai province described the next phase of the Ho Chi Minh 
Highway as due to start in 2006, with an upgrade of the 
existing two lane road rather than a new highway per se, and 
predicted that by 2010, the completed Ho Chi Minh Highway 
would have a "big impact" on economic development in this 
poor province.  They said that, ultimately, it should be 
possible to travel by car from Cao Bang to Ca Mau in only 
three days. 
 
New "Youth Villages" 
-------------------- 
 
6.  (U)  As part of the opening of mountainous areas, the 
GVN has already established four "Youth Villages" in Nghe An 
(Song Ro), Ha Tinh (Phuc Trach), Quang Binh (An Ma), and 
Quang Nam (A So) provinces.  These amount to rural 
homesteading, with participants each receiving a plot of 
land usually ranging from 3-5 hectares, some assistance in 
the construction of modest housing, access to new health and 
school facilities, and agricultural extension advice. 
Emboffs visited the sites in Quang Binh and Quang Nam, both 
of which got underway in 2001. 
 
7.  (U)  The An Ma project now has about 120 households -- 
all ethnic Kinh -- who primarily are engaged in the 
cultivation of black pepper (increasingly, one of Vietnam's 
major agricultural exports).  Officials claimed that all 
were originally residents of the district and did not come 
from other provinces, and that "there was nothing here" 
before the project began -- no residents, no cultivation, no 
roads.  They emphasized that participation was "100 pct 
voluntary," and that membership in the Youth Federation was 
not a requirement, although the Federation provided some 
financial assistance.  They also claimed that most 
participants were graduates of senior high school (note: 
which would be a surprise in this poor, remote district. 
end note). 
 
8.  (U)  The A So project only has 40 households so far, but 
aims at 150 families by 2005.  Its population is mixed 50/50 
between ethnic Kinh and the predominant local minority, Ka 
Tu.  Project officers also stressed that all residents were 
"volunteers" and were almost all from the district 
originally.  (Several of the Kinh residents admitted that, 
while they grew up in this district, their home provinces 
were in the North, but their parents had come to Quang Nam 
to work after 1975.)  Party or Youth Federation was not/not 
a prerequisite, officials insisted.  They admitted that 
there had been "some" ethnic minority families living on 
this site previously, but said that those families had 
"donated" their land and moved elsewhere.  One ethnic Ka Tu 
young father described his family's home closer to the Lao 
border, about a three hour walk from A So.  Like in An Ma, 
black pepper is or will be the major crop, and project 
officials will provide marketing assistance, relying in part 
on the new access made possible by the adjacent Ho Chi Minh 
Highway. 
 
 
Comment: Troubles ahead but good news, too 
------------------------------------------ 
 
9.  (U) While the portion of the Ho Chi Minh Highway through 
central Vietnam is essentially finished, emboffs ran into 
several chokepoints, especially in Quang Tri, Thua Thien 
Hue, and Quang Nam.  In some places, the paved highway was 
not yet in place, although newspaper reports had claimed 
that the road was ready in this zone.  Huge swatches of 
muddy clay -- in some cases, several feet deep -- 
occasionally blocked the route.  In other locations, 
landslides have covered already-completed sections, with 
road crews desperately trying to keep up by plowing their 
way through for the still only-occasional traffic.  In other 
places, rockslides covered half the road, which remained 
nonetheless passable.  Given the location and as-of-yet lack 
of retaining walls, vegetation cover, or other protective 
measures, such landslides and rockslides are likely to 
remain impediments to safe and predictable travel along this 
route for the foreseeable future. 
 
10. (U)  The opening up of new areas for cultivation, in 
addition to deforestation, is likely also to rekindle local 
sensitivities about "outsiders" moving into originally 
ethnic enclaves -- unless local and provincial authorities 
are vigilant (and honest) about only granting land use 
rights to genuinely local residents.  More probably, 
however, sometimes semi-nomadic ethnic groups may again feel 
squeezed off lands they had periodically used until now, 
potentially adding to ethnic tensions. 
 
11. (U)  Once the highway begins to carry more traffic, 
there is the probability that it will increasingly be a 
route for traffickers en route to Ho Chi Minh City carrying 
narcotics from Laos and/or Cambodia (and, eventually, from 
China as well).  Other types of smuggling -- already common 
in these under-patrolled areas -- will also likely increase. 
The need for vigilance along this road will further stretch 
public security and customs resources. 
 
12.  (U)  But the bottom line is that Vietnam does indeed 
need another north-south link to complement the busy and 
often dangerous Route One along the coast.  The existence of 
an alternative road will be a boost for domestic trade and 
transport, and should indeed promote higher living standards 
in these areas.  The impact of the new highway on greater 
internal mobility, more access to electricity and 
communications as well as social services, and heightened 
trade opportunities will all advance the GVN's overarching 
interest in promoting greater national unity and solidarity 
-- as well as provide yet another tribute to "Uncle Ho," 
whose 100th birthday Vietnam will celebrate in 2005. 
BURGHARDT