A Jesuit brother in Vietnam has highlighted several areas he feels the government should focus on in the coming years – education, corruption, legislation, ethnic minority groups and the environment.

Brother Anthony Ba SJ of the Jesuit-run Alberto Hurtado Center for Pastoral and Social Service in Ho Chi Minh City said this after completing a PESTLE analysis on Vietnam in 2011. 

A PESTLE analysis is an audit of an organisation’s environmental influences with the purpose of using this information to guide strategic decision-making. PESTLE is short for Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal, Environmental.

In the Sociological portion of his analysis, Br Anthony chose to focus on six areas – education; human resource; traffic conditions and problems; the difficulties of ethnic minority groups; the issues of immigration; marriage with foreigners and labour export; and Catholicism in Vietnam.

Brother Anthony said his analysis showed that Viet Nam has tried to adhere to its strategic development plan, and has achieved some important goals.  However, the country has had to face many difficulties and challenges from outside and from within.

He concludes, “In my opinion, there are some main issues that the government should pay great attention in the coming years: reforming the education system, fighting against corruption (especially, promoting fiscal transparency and the public availability of economic data and information), reforming the state-owned sectors, amending laws, narrowing the gap between the Kinh, the Hoa and the ethnic minority groups, and improving environmental conditions.”

To read PESTLE Report on Viet Nam 2011 by Br Anthony Ba SJ, click here.