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span class="inline inline-left">Captured might: Two visitors explore captured US military planes, helicopters, rockets, heavy artillery and tanks at Vietnam's Military History Museum in Hanoi. On April 30, 1975, the American supported South Vietnamese government collapsed after North Vietnamese troops captured Saigon. It may not yet be a tiger but it certainly is the new rising star in Asia. Vietnam is an emerging country with an average of above 7 percent economic growth during the first decade of the 21st century, despite facing major economic and security challenges.

Even at the height of the current global financial crisis, Vietnam’s gross domestic product grew 5.89 percent in 2011, slightly lower than the 6.8 percent in 2010.

“This growth level can be seen as relatively positive and high. It was quite close to the government’s adjusted target,” Vietnam’s Foreign Affairs Ministry stated in its Special Economic Bulletin 2012.

Today (Monday), the people of Vietnam – both living inside the country and abroad – are celebrating the 37th anniversary of the historic Victory Day or Liberation Day.

North Vietnamese troops entered Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, on April 30, 1975 and reunited the country. The fall of Saigon put an end to the bloody war (Americans call it Vietnam War and Vietnamese call it American War), which claimed the lives of more than two million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans.

Vietnam and Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, have so many similarities and work closely at regional and international levels. Both countries face same problems related to development, produce the same products and also compete for markets and foreign investment. Yet the relations between the two countries are rapidly growing. Both countries’ businesspeople are investing in the opposite country.

“Indonesia’s Ciputra group built a luxurious city on the outskirts of Hanoi. All the houses were sold out. Now they want to build a big shopping mall and a hotel in the center of Hanoi,” said Long Nguyen, who worked at the Vietnamese Embassy few years ago.

In 2011, bilateral trade surged to US$4.73 billion, a remarkable increase of 53.38 percent from $3.08 billion. Starting from 2012, bilateral trade will grow much faster because Vietnam is going to buy Indonesia’s coal for power generation purposes.

“We used to have coal but now our reserves are not enough. We are building so many new coal-fired power plants.

“We will buy coal in large quantity from Indonesia,” Tong Van Tuan, a major coal importer and owner of Dong Son Group, told The Jakarta Post in Hanoi recently.

Under its 1991 “Friendship with everyone” foreign policy, Vietnam opened its arms to friendships with even old enemies like the US, France and China.

Today, the US is not only one of the biggest investors in Vietnam but also the biggest buyer of its products. In 2011, the trade between Vietnam and the US reached $21 billion, a slight increase from the $18.6 billion in 2010 due to the global financial crisis.

Like China, Vietnam also realized that socialist economic policies didn’t bring prosperity and adopted market-friendly policies under Doi Moi in 1986. It opened doors for foreign investors, offered incentives and relaxed rules.

In 2011, foreign direct investment (FDI) capital flow into Vietnam reached $11.6 billion, much less than $19.7 billion, the Special Bulletin said. The decrease was mainly due to the global financial crisis.

But on the negative side, Vietnam’s biggest enemy is inflation, which reached 18.58 percent on average in 2011. It is the single biggest problem the Vietnamese economy faces today. The country also faces problems like unemployment, poverty, lack of infrastructure and corruption.

Above all, Vietnam’s claim to a portion of South China Sea, an area rich in oil and gas and fishery resources, has led to tensions with its giant neighbor China and forging of new links with countries like the US, Russia, India, Japan, Korea, Australia, France, the UK and Taiwan.

Vietnam also recently modernized its military program with upgrades in naval, air and electronic fighting capabilities. Hanoi recently ordered $1.8 billion worth of six diesel-powered Kilo-class submarines from its traditional supplier, Russia.

It is also planning to buy four Sigma-class corvettes from the Netherlands. Indonesia also owns the Sigma-class corvettes, the most modern warships. Russian-made Su-30MK2 fighter planes are also on its shopping list this year.