Obama, Perhaps Slyly, Calls Attention to Vietnam’s Brain Drain (Source: NY Times)

President Obama told a gathering of young Vietnamese on Wednesday that the country need not worry about losing its most talented people, but then he proceeded to describe conditions for emigration that fit Vietnam perfectly.

 

“The places that lose talent, it’s where there’s a lot of corruption,” Mr. Obama said in Ho Chi Minh City at a town-hall style meeting of the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative, a United States-sponsored mentoring program.

Mr. Obama said that people despair of having to pay bribes to start businesses or do the things they want to do, so they leave.

Development agencies and businesses say they must pay bribes to Vietnamese officials for anywhere from 20 percent to 50 percent of the cost of a project to get it completed.

Another reason people leave their home countries is environmental issues, Mr. Obama added. “No job is so important that it’s O.K. if your children have asthma and they can’t breathe.”

The United States Embassy in Hanoi, the capital, recently installed air pollution monitors, and during Mr. Obama’s speech, the level of the most dangerous particles in Hanoi was 158, which is considered unhealthy. High pollution levels substantially increase the risk that children grow up with asthma and weakened lungs. Heavy pollution also increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes in adults.

 

Mr. Obama said that countries with poor education systems tend to lose talent. Vietnam’s higher education system is considered poor, and many Vietnamese go abroad in search of a better education. More than 125,000 Vietnamese studied abroad in 2013, with more than 19,000 going to the United States. As part of efforts to improve Vietnam’s education system, the United States is supporting the creation of Fulbright University Vietnam.

It was most likely intentional that Mr. Obama’s reasons for countries losing their most talented people were such a close match for Vietnam. During his three-day trip, which ended Wednesday, the president had sought to prod Vietnam’s authoritarian Communist government into loosening its grip.

Mr. Obama also called on Hang Lam Trang Anh, a young rapper known as Suboi who has performed at the Austin, Tex., music and technology event South by Southwest. She said that “as an artist we have a lot to say.”

“I want to know how important it is for a nation to really help and promote their art and culture,” Ms. Hang Lam said.

Mr. Obama asked her to rap and even provided a brief beat by aspirating into the microphone. Ms. Hang Lam obliged in Vietnamese, and Mr. Obama asked what she had rapped about.

“I was just talking about some people having a lot of money, having big houses, but actually are they really happy,” she said.

Mr. Obama also promised that his commitment to mentoring programs would continue no matter who succeeds him, even if he has to support such efforts through his own philanthropy.

“If you ask me what I’m most excited about in terms of my legacy 20 years from now, I would feel really good if I see 10,000 or 20,000 or 50,000 young leaders who are now taking over governments and businesses and nonprofit organizations,” he said. “If I can help facilitate that, that would be something I’d be very proud of.”