• Southern Boy@lemmy.mlOP
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    1 month ago

    If anyone here freaks out about cooperation agreements with the west keep in mind these are several rungs below the cooperation with Laos, Cambodia, and China, VERY explicitly so

    • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      1 month ago

      That’s precisely why I think this is a money making scheme for rich officials and contractors in Hanoi, the amounts are too low to set off the state’s corruption detectors, but the precedent still sets a bad example institutionally

      • Southern Boy@lemmy.mlOP
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        1 month ago

        Hanoi needs some serious infrastructure so I do agree the amounts should be higher but this is paranoid thinking

        The country is poor and literally every facet of infrastructure could do with cash injection, there’s hardly room for graft without pissing people off. They actually sentence people for it and NGOs aren’t getting a free ride anymore.

        The level of pessimism coming out here from people who don’t even know how these cooperation agreements work is kind of disappointing.

        • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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          1 month ago

          French capital is not investing for the sake of Viet rail and the wild returns that would bring in

          This is quid pro quo under the table deal making and graft, the French are purchasing access to something they think will make real money and definitely something they shouldn’t have access to

          • Southern Boy@lemmy.mlOP
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            1 month ago

            I mean feel free to back any of that up but it really just seems like bong rip paranoia that flies in the face of how these cooperation agreements work and the competition and diplomatic pressure France is facing

            Capital outflows from imperialist countries have not created rail development abroad beyond what was needed to extract resources for a century in many places so imperialists paying for infrastructure is symbolically a reversal, it’s bringing them to heel

            • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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              1 month ago

              Capital outflows from imperialist countries have not created rail development abroad beyond what was needed to extract resources for a century in many places so imperialists paying for infrastructure is symbolically a reversal, it’s bringing them to heel

              That’s my point, the French wouldn’t pay for infrastructure unless they thought they were getting something out of it, if there’s a clear reversal (symbolic or otherwise) the French wouldn’t so much as return Hanoi’s calls

              Obviously the French see a door that is open or appears to be open, a door that most likely has nothing to do with rail (considering the comically low amount they’re investing) and shouldn’t be open to begin with

              Whether that “door” is actually open and the Vietnamese aren’t just playing 4d chess on Paris is up for debate, I hope they are

            • CyborgMarx [any, any]@hexbear.net
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              1 month ago

              The french corporations are not interested in selling trains, they’re interested in making Profit ON selling trains, and the lack of profitability is blatantly clear in light of the low amounts they’ve invested in the form of loans

              Selling trains to a public service state entity in Vietnam is not profitable in itself, the loan is a ticket purchase for access to Vietnamese resources or industries that are profitable when invested in

              What the French are purchasing access to isn’t specified publicly, but it sure as shit ain’t access to build rail for working class Vietnamese in the form of sub-strandard inter-industry foreign loans