Vietnam and Philippine Agriculture Fall Prey to Globalization of Land Rights.

• Author: Nuevo, Shirley

What awaits socialist Vietnam in a highly globalized economic environment?

Since the start of the doi moi (renovation) in its agriculture sector in the eighties, Vietnam developed from a food deficit nation to one of Southeast Asia's most active food exporting countries. A key factor then was the country's agrarian reform program and "cooperativization" of farm production. Now, socialist Vietnam is moving towards a radical reform: opening up land control to foreigners.

The Vietnamese government believes such a step would bring more investment to agriculture and pump up the lifeline of the economy.

But peasant groups within and outside Vietnam are wondering whether the country is stepping in the right direction. Close comparison with the Philippine situation, for instance, would prove that things might not turn out as expected.

Land to foreigners?

With the vigorous implementation of capitalist reforms in the Vietnamese economy, like legal guarantees to foreign investments and the sale of government-owned assets, many foreigners have been tempted to invest in a "renovated" socialist Vietnam. Still, many remained unsatisfied. Creditors and foreign investors have repeatedly criticized the government for the slow pace of reforms. Many, in fact, have threatened to withdraw investments from Vietnam.

In a bold bid to keep the investors, the government is staking its lands via the new law.

Like its neighbor the Philippines, Vietnam does not allow foreigners to own land. But the setup is bound to change as soon as Vietnam's legislature, the National Assembly, passes the new land law.

Under the proposed law, foreign investors in Vietnam will be allowed to buy land-use rights from government or commission Vietnamese farmers to produce specified crops by forming joint venture agreements with them. Foreign partners are expected to provide technical and financial assistance, while local farmers will offer their land and provide labor.

The proposed law will virtually transfer land control from farmers to foreign agro-investors. Similar arrangements are common in the Philippines, where the contract-growing scheme has been widely practiced in the last two decades.

Contract growing in the Philippines is an arrangement in which an agriculture-based foreign company transfers farm production processes to local independent farmers or farmers' groups. The foreign partner normally specifies which crop to plant, impose a standard quantity and quality and dictates...