How Vietnam’s Burgeoning Civil Society Is Changing The Nation’s Political Landscape

Since 1976, Vietnam has been controlled by the Communist Party. Till recently, its rule and legitimacy had never been challenged. Recent civil movements however suggest that Vietnamese are gradually rising up against the party, hoping to transform the nation from a one-party state into a democracy.

Vietnam’s political culture is gradually transforming from totalitarianism to pluralism. Why? Because an emerging and independent civil society is openly challenging communist party rule.
The most high-profile example is a petition signed by Group 72, a movement of nationally well-known personalities, intellectuals, party members and retired high-ranking officials of the communist government. In early 2013, Group 72 submitted its own draft Western-style constitution to the Vietnamese legislature, requested a multi-party and inclusive election, and called for Vietnam to transform from a one-party state into a democracy. After Group 72’s motion, other petitions and movements prompted the authorities to increase control and repression.

Other recent movements included, for example, the Declaration of Free Citizens;Declaration 258, by a group of bloggers; and more recently an open letter written and circulated on the internet by a veteran communist party member calling for the founding of a new political party to compete with the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).

There is now a clear choice of media in Vietnam, between the CPV’s theorists and opinion writers, whose articles are published in the state-controlled media, and members of civil society, who write on social media networks.

And civil society members are having some success. In May 2013, a group of 20 organisations managed to convince the Vietnamese parliament — which operates under the direction of the CPV — to postpone the passage of a draft revised land law by presenting independent recommendations based on community consultations.

Many dissenting members of civil society are CPV members and once held senior offices in the government. These people are speaking out because they are frustrated with Vietnam’s decline. It is nearly 70 years since the CPV took power in the north of Vietnam and approximately 38 years since it took over the rest of the country, never in that time has its rule and legitimacy been challenged as now.

The reason, simply put, is that the party is failing its people.

Why Vietnam’s Civil Society Is Challenging The Government

First, even though the Vietnamese Constitution prescribes a referendum, a referendum has never been held. Instead, the party controls the Constitution. Group 72 and other civil society organisations recently waged a lengthy, high-profile and costly campaign to collect public comments on the draft revised constitution. The CPV ignored them.

Second, corruption is rampant, but it is not addressed effectively for various reasons, including a subservient judiciary. The government is built on patron–client relationships.
Third, the authorities arbitrarily evict people from their land for construction projects even though farmers account for nearly 80 per cent of the population and are loyal believers in the CPV. This problem results from vague and inappropriate legal provisions. Land is owned by the people, but managed by the state.

In addition, human rights and freedoms are violated, including the right of demonstrators to protest China’s aggressive moves in the South China Sea.
Fifth, the economy is at risk of sliding into deep stagnation.

 

All of these problems are institutional, as civil society activists point out. The productivity of the labour force is repressed because human creativity and freedom cannot flourish. Only when the party-state transforms to a pluralist democracy will the country escape its social and economic crises.

Can Vietnam’s Civil Society Succeed?

Comparative studies of regime change from communism to democracy in Central and Eastern European countries show that civil society can be a driving force for change. Civil society in Central Europe underwent four stages of development: defensive, emergent, mobilisational and institutional.
In the first two stages (defensive and emergent), individuals, independent groups and movements asserted their autonomy and pursued limited goals in a public space that widened as the reforming party-state gave certain concessions.

In the third stage (mobilisation), groups and individuals sought to undermine the legitimacy of the party-state and offer alternative forms of governance.

The fourth stage (institutional) sees a cooperative relationship between the state and society, in which laws are enacted to ensure free elections. Recent developments in Vietnam suggest that civil society activists are following the same pattern.

The establishment of a ‘Civil Society Forum’ in Vietnam on 23 September shows that Vietnamese civil society is beginning to ‘mobilise’ — it is in the third stage of development. This forum is the product of a manifesto called the ‘Declaration on the Implementation of Civil and Political Rights’, which was prepared by a group of 130 Vietnamese citizens.

The forum is set to be ‘a venue where organizations, groups, individuals can express their views … exchange and garner opinions that contribute to transforming the political regime in our country from totalitarianism to democracy in a non-violent manner’. The CPV’s response to this initiative will be a sign of its attitude to Vietnam’s changing political culture.

 

The establishment of the forum might be the first step toward regime transformation. It might also create an empty mouthpiece that brings no significant change. But if this organisation is not the catalyst, something else will be. Vietnam’s civil society is changing the country’s politics.

By Hai Hong Nguyen
Source: http://www.economywatch.com/features/vietnam-civil-society-political-change.16-10.html

Technology Capacity Building for Nonprofits in Vietnam

In May, Microsoft Vietnam hosted more than 100 non-governmental organisation (NGO) representatives, including those from a number of youth-focused social enterprises in the country, at its second NGO Connection Day held in Hanoi.

“Cloud computing is changing the way NGOs work and communicate through technology networks. The second NGO Connection Day provided the participants with ample opportunities to learn from industry experts, share knowledge and discuss best practices – and the event would not have been possible if these organisations weren’t willing to share their knowledge and experience with others in the sector,” said Nguyen Thu Hue, Director of Vietnet ICT, one of the event participants.

The event was aimed at providing NGOs with deeper insights into how emerging information technology (IT) trends are shaping the future of the nonprofit sector, as well as introducing the participants to a wide array of Microsoft offerings such as Office 365®, ExchangeTM, SharePoint®, Lync® and Windows® 8 to address their operational challenges. Key topics discussed during NGO Connection Day in Hanoi included cloud computing developments, the use of social media to improve community outreach, mobility trends and Big Data.

Another highlight of NGO Connection Day was the official launch of the TechSoup Asia programme in Vietnam, which helps nonprofits in the country gain easier access to Microsoft products and other technology platforms to build their information technology (IT) capacity. At the event, the participating NGOs were provided with information about how to register.

“The challenges faced by NGOs working in Vietnam are similar to those of others around the world. The TechSoup programme will provide NGOs in Vietnam with the necessary IT resources to support the effective use of technology to address social challenges,” said Mike Yeaton, Vice President, TechSoup Asia. 

Vu Minh Tri, Country Manager of Microsoft Vietnam, said, “This NGO Connection Day event marked the official launch of TechSoup Asia in Vietnam, reinforcing our shared purpose of enabling improved access to relevant and affordable technology. Microsoft will further expand on our efforts to help NGOs and businesses alike acquire various technology resources and build technology capacity for the nonprofit sector in Vietnam.”

Source: Microsoft

Developing rural entrepreneurship to combat poverty in Dien Bien Province

In the mountainous region of Dien Bien in Northern Vietnam, women farmers, very often from marginalized ethnic minorities, live in extremely precarious conditions. It was in this province that the Anh Chi Em microfinance program came into being in 2007, thanks to the French NGO Entrepreneurs du Monde. AFD is supporting this action.

Copyright : Entrepreneurs du Monde

“I was able to buy twenty or so ducks…”

The NGO Entrepreneurs du Monde is implementing the Anh Chi Em project, either directly or in partnership with local entities. This microfinance program targets the poorest and most vulnerable families. The NGO offers customized and scalable financial services (loans, savings) and non-financial services (training, follow-up, awareness-raising) through this microcredit project.

In addition to the loans allocated to families for livestock farming and farming activities, the NGO supports local communities, particularly women, by giving them technical training and raising their awareness in terms of trade and how to keep a family budget. “With the loan, I was able to buy twenty or so ducks. The money I made when I sold them allowed me to start pig breeding”, remembers Ca Thi Pom, a woman from a village in Dien Bien Province.

In 2011, 3,700 families were supported by the program, an 86% increase compared to 2010. 2,000 loans have been allocated for an average amount of EUR 91. 14,400 people have attended training sessions.

An innovative microfinance program

The Anh Chi Em program has developed over the years with the aim of always better meeting needs. For example, Anh Chi Em now offers loans with different amounts and maturities in order to adapt to the economic cycles of activities. In addition, a team of trainers and social workers offer and provide support, as well as training for families.

Anh Chi Em is testing an innovative project for the future. It encourages participants to sort and sell their waste and put the money they earn on a savings account. Finally, the NGO is currently working on creating services that would allow farmers to organize themselves into interest groups or networks.

7,000 people expected to benefit from a microcredit

Anh Chi Em will be able to develop its activities and support some 7,000 people thanks to the program agreement with AFD. It will also allow it to considerably strengthen its institutional and financial visibility. In addition, this program agreement will scale up exchanges of experience between the organizations supported by Entrepreneurs du Monde in other countries (Benin, Burma, Cambodia, Haiti, India, the Philippinesµ...).

AFD started supporting Entrepreneurs du Monde back in 2009. It invested EUR 961,000 in this Anh Chi Em project between 2010 and 2011 and AFD more recently signed a 3-year program agreement. Under this program agreement, AFD is providing EUR 305,000 of further support to Entrepreneurs du Monde for a 3-year period (2012-2014).

AFD has already supported a dozen or so French NGOs in Vietnam

Some 150 non-governmental organizations from France have been operating in Vietnam for about twenty years now. French NGOs account for 10% of international NGOs working in Vietnam and cover a total of 63 towns and provinces. The operations of these NGOs cover a very wide range of activities, including education and vocational training, rural development, social integration, energy, health and microfinance.

Since 2008, AFD has financed a dozen or so projects led by French NGOs in Vietnam, for a total amount of over EUR 2m. These NGOs include internationally renowned NGOS (such as Handicap International and Entrepreneurs du Monde), as well as smaller NGOs with a more limited range of activities in Vietnam or Southeast Asia (such as digital gateways or Codev Viet Phap). French NGOs have taken account of the new realities of Vietnam – a middle-income country on the verge of becoming an emerging country – and of the constraints on access to financing and are tending to implement more and more innovative initiatives. AFD works to support these developments.

Source: AFD

Civil society and democratisation in Vietnam

The existence of civil society and its vibrant activism have been shown to contribute to a nation’s development and democratisation.

Is there a civil society in Vietnam? Is Vietnam democratising? These questions need to be addressed amidst scepticism of — or even a rejection of the existence of — both a functioning civil society and democratisation Vietnam.

Civil society is broadly defined as a network of non-state actors that differ from organisations such as self-governed sport clubs, research institutes and think tanks. The non-state actors in this context are commonly referred to as social organisations or associations. The key tenet of civil society is that it is independent of the state by all means — it is not subjected to state control and influence in any way or form. Only when this tenet is strictly upheld can civil society scrutinise public policies effectively without state restrictions.

The state control of, and restriction on, social organisations in Vietnam make many believe that there is no civil society. In Vietnam, it is very complicated. Social organisations in Vietnam can be split into two categories: governmental and pseudo non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The former includes those that are either financially sponsored and guided, or not financially sponsored but guided by the Communist Party of Vietnam. There are six governmental organisations that operate closely with the Communist Party: the Fatherland Front, the Farmers Union, the Women’s Union, the General Confederation of Labour, the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and the Veterans Association. There are also two other national unions: the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts Associations and the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), whose membership is in the thousands nationwide. Also within this category are professional associations such as the Vietnam Journalists Association and economic federations like the Vietnam Economic Association.

The second category, pseudo NGOs, is represented by organisations that must register with the government under the auspice of VUSTA. These organisations proclaim themselves as NGOs, operating on their own initiatives and funds without state intervention and influence.

However, activities of these NGOs are under strict surveillance of government watchdogs. Thus, they are very careful about their criticisms, if any, against the government. A legislative project to develop a law allowing social organisations to exist free from government control in Vietnam is currently on the backburner, as the government fears that the law might put it in a political dilemma if it does not allow independent organisations to operate.

In recent years, with the support of social media networks like Twitter, Facebook and blogs, citizens in Vietnam are more updated and engaged in public affairs, and are more likely to challenge the legitimacy of the government and, above all, the communist party’s monopoly rule. Netizen (internet citizen) communities are increasingly engaging in activities such as calling for demonstrations or exposing corruption cases, making many believe that a civil society already exists and democratisation is coming in the two countries. However, liberal democracy theorists would not be so optimistic. Some conditions are necessary, though may not be enough, for both civil society to operate and democratisation to occur, like freedom of association, freedom of speech and independent press. Unfortunately, most western civil society and democratisation theorists would agree that these conditions are still absent in Vietnam. In fact, the existence of social organisations networks and the activism of netizen communities should be considered as social capital, which really matters for democratization only when the above necessary conditions become available.

One cannot be too optimistic about the existence of civil society and ongoing democratisation in Vietnam. But there is no doubt a solid foundation for change. It is now just a matter of time.

Source: East Asia Forum

Vietnamese Restaurants Turn Philanthropy Into Business

HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM— Among the countless street children Jimmy Pham has met over the decades, the one who comes to mind most often is a young girl whose mother slammed her head against a wall 16 years ago.

“It’s Uncle Tuan!” he remembers the five-year-old greeting him on the street. The girl’s mother, who was beside her, then suggested beg for money from Pham, a stranger who lately had become a kind of casual benefactor to the local children. When the girl refused to beg, her mother punished her with a beating.

The memory of that girl, and others like her, played a key role in the origin of KOTO, the restaurant chain Pham went on to found in 1999. KOTO uses its eateries to take young people off the street and train them in the service industry.

Unlike when Pham started out, Vietnam now has a whole host of vocational charities that take the teach-them-to-fish approach. Instead of a handout, the organizations specialize in a teaching marketable skill - from baking brownies to tailoring trousers. The thinking is that they can pass these skills on to poor or disabled people, who then can support themselves. But Pham says even this approach is no longer enough.

“We’re not content with showing them how to fish anymore,” Pham, 40, said in an interview at KOTO’s restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City. “We want to show them how to set up the fish shops and teach others to fish.”

Case in point: Pots 'n Pans. A group of KOTO alumni opened the restaurant in Hanoi this year, using the experience they gained through their alma mater and sending some of the profits back to it. KOTO stands for “Know One, Teach One.”

The non-profit’s shift in strategy is still new, but reflects more generally the endless reinvention that began from KOTO’s early days.

Pham, who as a baby fled Saigon for Australia as the Vietnam War was winding down, returned in 1996 as a travel agent. He was struck immediately by the poverty and says he spent his first few weeks buying meals for street children and giving them money.

But he knew that couldn’t last. After a few years, he set up a sandwich shop in Hanoi so he could hire young Vietnamese and help them earn a living. He called that group KOTO’s inaugural class (twice a year, the KOTO branches in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City each welcome a new class of 30 recruits).

But the first class looked nothing like the ones today. Pham rented a house for the teenagers, who left it a mess and told the landlady to charge him double so they could keep the extra money. They skipped out on their English classes and thought of him, Pham said, as a “big fat turkey.”

“Looking back, I could have been very angry,” he said. In the background at the restaurant, “Hello, Vietnam,” a song of homecoming by a Vietnamese-Belgian, played softly.

But instead of giving up, Pham and his colleagues built on the concept. Over the course of 13 years, through a process of trial and error that still is evolving, KOTO has become one of the most recognizable social enterprises in the country. Its restaurants, which serve Vietnamese and fusion cuisine, are a favorite stopover during diplomatic visits, and its catering appears regularly at embassy and consular functions.

Thuy Hang, a public diplomacy officer at the Australian Consulate here, called KOTO “special” because it “not only provides a high standard of employment-focused skills training to young people, but also broader 'life skills' training.”

The recruits live together for two years at a training center, one in each city, but food service makes up just part of their lessons. They learn English and play soccer, but also take 36 workshops that cover everything from personal finance to sex education.

The rigorous application and vetting process requires that the trainees start between ages 16 to 22 and come from disadvantaged backgrounds. More than 500 Vietnamese have graduated with a certificate accredited by Box Hill Institute, which provides vocational education in Australia and through international partners.

Soon, Bui Viet An will count himself among those alumni. Having lost both parents by age 10, he grew up with grandparents in a thatch-roof house that, one year, blew apart in a storm.

“I wasn’t happy, because it was just my grandparents and they were sick,” An, 23, said during a break from his training. “From seventh grade, I would go to school in the morning, and in the afternoon go look for work.”

He was bussing tables at a noodle shop, sometimes as early as 5 a.m., and as late as 2 a.m., when he heard about KOTO. After he graduates at year’s end, An hopes to work at a five-star hotel.

At this stage in its transition, KOTO is moving to shed the image of charity and become a self-sustaining business. The organization has had its share of lean years, relying on government, corporate, and private donors because its restaurants still don’t make enough profit to fund the training, which costs an estimated $10,000 per student.

Pham, dubbed a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum last year, talks about turning a profit by diversifying the enterprise, maybe expanding into the hotel business and setting up in other countries. He wants people to come to KOTO for the quality, not just the philanthropy, but says it will remain a “business with heart.” 

Source: http://www.voanews.com/content/turning-philanthropy-into-business-in-vietnam/1530684.html

Chemical Warfare: Agent Orange in Vietnam

AUGUST 10, 2012, AT NOON: 51 YEARS AFTER THE CHEMICAL WAR BEGAN IN VIETNAM, WE SHOULD BE SILENT IN MEMORY, THEN TAKE ACTION TO REMEDY

To take action go to http://www.vn-agentorange.org/

There are images from the U.S. War against Vietnam that have been indelibly imprinted on the minds of Americans who lived through it. One is the naked napalm-burned girl running from her village with flesh hanging off her body. Another is a photo of the piles of bodies from the My Lai massacre, where U.S. troops executed 504 civilians in a small village. Then there is the photograph of the silent scream of a woman student leaning over the body of her dead friend at Kent State University whose only crime was protesting the bombing of Cambodia in 1970. Finally, there is the memory of decorated members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War testifying at the Winter Soldier Hearings, often in tears, to atrocities in which they had participated during the war.

These pictures are heartbreaking. They expose the horrors of war. The U.S. War against Vietnam was televised, while images of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have intentionally been hidden from us. But what was not televised was the relentless ten years (1961-1971) of spraying millions of gallons of toxic herbicides over vast areas of South Vietnam. These chemicals exposed almost 5 million people, mostly civilians, to deadly consequences. The toxic herbicides, most notably Agent Orange, contained dioxin, one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man. It has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a carcinogen (causes cancer) and by the American Academy of Medicine as a teratogen (causes birth defects).

From the beginning of the spraying 51 years ago, until today, millions of Vietnamese have died from, or been completely incapacitated by, diseases which the U. S. government recognizes are related to Agent Orange for purposes of granting compensation to Vietnam Veterans in the United States. The Vietnamese, who were the intended victims of this spraying, experienced the most intense, horrible impact on human health and environmental devastation. Second and third generations of children, born to parents exposed during the war and in areas of heavy spraying — un-remediated “hot spots” of dioxin contamination, — suffer unspeakable deformities that medical authorities attribute to the dioxin in Agent Orange.

The Vietnamese exposed to the chemical suffer from cancer, liver damage, pulmonary and heart diseases, defects to reproductive capacity, and skin and nervous disorders. Their children and grandchildren have severe physical deformities, mental and physical disabilities, diseases, and shortened life spans. The forests and jungles in large parts of southern Vietnam were devastated and denuded. Centuries-old habitat was destroyed, and will not regenerate with the same diversity for hundreds of years. Animals that inhabited the forests and jungles are threatened with extinction, disrupting the communities that depended on them. The rivers and underground water in some areas have also been contaminated. Erosion and desertification will change the environment, causing dislocation of crop and animal life.

For the past 51 years, the Vietnamese people have been attempting to address this legacy of war by trying to get the United States and the chemical companies to accept responsibility for this ongoing nightmare. An unsuccessful legal action by Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange against the chemical companies in U.S. federal court, begun in 2004, has nonetheless spawned a movement to hold the United States accountable for using such dangerous chemicals on civilian populations. The movement has resulted in pending legislation HR 2634 – The Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2011, which attempts to provide medical, rehabilitative and social service compensation to the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, remediation of dioxin-contaminated “hot spots,” and medical services for the children and grandchildren of U. S. Vietnam veterans and Vietnamese-Americans who have been born with the same diseases and deformities.

Using weapons of war on civilian populations violates the laws of war, which recognize the principle of distinction between military and civilian objects, requiring armies to avoid civilian targets. These laws of war are enshrined in the Hague Convention and the Nuremberg principles, and are codified in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Optional Protocol of 1977, as well as the International Criminal Court statute. The aerial bombardments of civilian population centers in World Wars I and II violated the principle of distinction, as did the detonation of nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9 of 1945. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese people were killed in an instant, even though Japan was already negotiating the terms of surrender.

The use of Agent Orange on civilian populations violated the laws of war and yet no one has been held to account. Taxpayers pick up the tab of the Agent Orange Compensation fund for the U. S. Veterans at a cost of 1.52 billion dollars a year. The chemical companies, most specifically Dow and Monsanto, which profited from the manufacture of Agent Orange, paid a pittance to settle the veterans’ lawsuit to compensate them, as the unintended victims, for their Agent Orange related illnesses. But the Vietnamese continue to suffer from these violations with almost no recognition, as do the offspring of Agent Orange-exposed U.S. veterans and Vietnamese-Americans.

What is the difference between super powers like the United States violating the laws of war with impunity and the reports of killing of Syrian civilians by both sides in the current civil war? Does the United States have any credibility to demand governments and non-state actors end the killings of civilians, when through wars and drones and its refusal to acknowledge responsibility for the use of Agent Orange, the United States has and is engaging in the very conduct it publicly deplores?
In 1945, at the founding conference of the United Nations, the countries of the world determined:
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, andto promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom.

If we are to avoid sinking once again into the scourge of war, we must reaffirm the principles of the Charter and establish conditions under which countries take actions that promote rather than undermine justice and respect for our international legal obligations. The alternative is the law of the jungle, where only might makes right. It is time that right makes might.

August 10th marks 51 years since the beginning of the spraying of Agent Orange in Vietnam. In commemoration, the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign urges you to observe 51 seconds of silence at 12 noon, to think about the horrors of wars which have occurred. We ask you to take action so as not to see future images of naked children running from napalm, or young soldiers wiping out the population of an entire village, or other atrocities associated with war, poverty, and violence around the world. We urge you to take at least 51 seconds for your action. In the United States, you can sign an orange post card to the U.S. Congress asking it to pass HR 2634. This would be a good start to assist the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange as well as the next generations of those exposed to these dangerous chemicals in both Vietnam and the United States.
Jeanne Mirer, a New York attorney, is president of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former president of the National Lawyers Guild. They are both on the board of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign.

To sign the petition, go to http://www.vn-agentorange.org/ 

Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/chemical-warfare-agent-orange-in-vietnam/32227

Vietnamese AO Victims to Get Free Medical Treatment in South Korea

As many as 80 Vietnamese Agent Orange (AO) victims will be provided with free medical check-ups and treatment in South Korea next week, state media reported. This is part of a program from June 4-8 funded by the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO), the Korean Victims of Agent Orange Veterans Association (KAOVA) and Korean Television MBC in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Vietnam-Korea diplomatic ties 2012.

This is the first time such a lot of Vietnamese AO victims receive free medical check-ups and treatment at a foreign hospital, VUFO Vice President Don Tuan Phong said. “Such activities are expected to help Korean people know more about Vietnam and its AO consequences, then, they would join the fight for justice for AO victims,” he added. Tran Xuan Thu, Vice President-cum-General Secretary of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange /dioxin said many international friends stand side by side in the fight for justice to support Vietnamese AO victims.

So far, at least 17 AO-related diseases have been claimed by Vietnam and U.S. health experts, including nine various kinds of cancers, Thu said, inserting that AO could affect most of the human body and especially reduce immune systems to make victims vulnerable to communicable diseases. About 4.8 million people in Vietnam are reportedly exposed to AO and about three million currently suffer from AO-related diseases.

Source: Vietnam News