Cablegate: Resonse to Department Comments On Vietnam Fy 2007

R 130834Z MAY 05
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 7622
INFO AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY

UNCLAS HANOI 001116

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL SOCI VM
SUBJECT: RESONSE TO DEPARTMENT COMMENTS ON VIETNAM FY 2007
MP

REF: A. STATE 58484 B. MOELING/DEHMLOW EMAILS

1. (U) SUMMARY: Post as reviewed the suggestions in ref A
and made seeral revisions to the FY-07 Mission Performance
lan. In most cases, Post accepted Washington's
uggestions. END SUMMARY.

Brief Overview and COMStatement
--------------------------------

2.(U) Post appreciates the comments on the brief oveview
and has simplified the personnel section tomake it easier
to read. This has required sacriicing some detail.

3. (U) The Chief of Mission Statement has been revised, per
reftel recommendations, to incorporate POW/MIA issues;
describe increases in Foreign Operations spending requests;
and, explain the replacement of the RS goalpaper with Trade
and Investment. Regarding the inclusion of POW/MIA staff in
the Mission Performance Plan, it is our considered position
that JPAC Detachment Two functions as an integrated part of
this Mission, and that it is not possible to make a
realistic strategic plan without considering the personnel,
policy and resource impact represented by JPAC Detachment
Two. Consequently, we will continue to list JPAC in our
MPP.

Goalpapers
----------

4. (U) Reftel asked why secondary schol enrollment was
chosen as a performance indicato in goalpaper one (economic
growth and developmet). The strategic goal we are working
towards i this area includes equitable distribution of
ecnomic benefits. The success of public education i
directly related to a country's economic developent and
growth and its ability to distribute thebenefits of that
growth equitably. Secondary school enrollment rates are one
way to measure the health of the public education system;
this metric is also used in assessing the International
Development Goals of the Millennium Declaration (the so-
called "Millenium Development Goals.") We incorporated
causal factors into this goalpaper related to improvements
in the corruption index.

5. (U) The Department of Labor does not have a
representative in Vietnam; the labor portfolio is handled by
the Economic Section. Therefore we opted not to list DOL as
an action office on any of the tactics in the MPP.
Regarding the Mission's listing of position requests as
tactics in the MPP, after consultation with RM (ref B) we
have decided to retain these references. Post understands
that listing position requests as tactics within goalpapers
will not have an effect on Washington's decision to support
those position requests. To strengthen that argument, we
have refined and rewritten some of our position descriptions
in Table C and revised the COM statement. Our retention of
the position requests within the body of the goalpapers (in
the tactics section) is to improve the MPP's usefulness to
the Mission as an internal planning document as well as a
monitoring and evaluation tool.

6. (U) Thank you for your recommendations regarding
goalpaper two (human rights). We have made an adjustment to
the performance indicator.

7. (U) Post accepts reftel A recommendation on changing the
wording of the performance goal in the third goalpaper
(global health). In response to DOL's question about the
focus of our efforts, this goalpaper reflects interagency
consensus regarding the best approach to the HIV/AIDS
problem in Vietnam: focusing on intravenous drug users (most
of whom are men) and commercial sex workers.

8. (U) We revised goalpaper four (mutual understanding) to
clarify the purpose of American Corners in accordance with
reftel A request.

9. (SBU) The Mission determined this year that Trade and
Investment, separate from Economic Growth and Development,
represents a priority goal requiring substantial attention
and resources. There are significant linkages between the
two goals, and we have adjusted the linkage sections of both
papers to ensure they are communicated effectively. The
replacement of the Regional Security goalpaper with the
Trade and Investment goalpaper in the FY 2007 MPP reflects
the reality that a robust program of real bilateral security
cooperation still remains a medium-to-long-term goal with
relatively little chance of success in the short term, while
increasing trade and investment is both a current reality
and a prerequisite for progress in our other priority areas,
notably Human Rights, Mutual Understanding and Economic

Growth and Development. This change does not reflect a
reduction in the Mission's efforts to expand security
cooperation.

10. (U) We revised our statement of the performance goal in
goalpaper six (visas/homeland security) so that it
represents an end state rather than a description of our
current efforts, but declined Washington's suggestion that
repatriation of Vietnamese nationals be included in the
performance goal. As stated in the COM statement, the
constraints of the MPP process prevent us from including in
the MPP every activity the Mission carries out; instead, we
have focused our efforts on the areas where we are devoting
the most resources for the most potential gain in the
timeframe of this MPP. The repatriation issue does not meet
that threshold. We also declined to revise our priorities
in line with CA's suggestion that adoptions be elevated
higher than visas in accordance with adoptions' higher
profile with the general public. It is the Mission's
position that effective visa services and homeland security
are a higher priority than facilitating adoptions by
American citizens, a position supported by the profile of
resources devoted to both issues.

MARINE

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