A dragon apparent
Since the fall of communism, Poland has turned its back on former comrade in arms Vietnam. But things are improving.
Since 1991, Do Xuan Can has made Poland his home. After arriving here from Vietnam, he set up his own small trading business selling goods at Praga stadium, got married to his Katowice girlfriend and in 1994 he became a father for the first time. Now Can is stuck in bureaucratic limbo.
Last year, Can's new work documents were refused after the local police deemed his marriage a sham. He protested and was eventually granted the right to apply again for new documents. But by this time, because his current documents had expired, he was classified as an illegal immigrant.
Now he says his only options are to stay here and fight the system, or leave his wife and family and return to Vietnam. If he gets caught here, he will face three months in prison before being extradited back to Vietnam.
"Of course, I'm very worried about this situation," said Can, 33. "And my wife and daughter, and my wife's family are also very worried at what the outcome is going to be."
Can's story is like that of thousands of Vietnamese living in Poland: Stories of inconsistent decisions by immigration and visa officials; discrimination by police and border guards, and extraordinary scrutiny by the tax office.
The scale of the problem is unknown because no one is sure how many Vietnamese live in Poland. They are one of the biggest minority groups in the country, and one government official who spoke with the Business Journal estimated numbers could be as high as 50,000. But the consensus seems to be around 15,000 to 20,000, with as many as 60% of them living and working illegally - either because their visa documents are not renewed, or they entered across Poland's porous borders.
It's a problem that has been swept under the carpet by successive governments, but over the past two years the relationship between Poland and Vietnam has started to change.
Restoring trade
For the first time since the fall of communism, Poland is looking to strengthen trade links with communist Vietnam, which itself is going through a rapid course of market liberalization.
Government trade initiatives have started: A joint scientific research program has been established and delegations visiting both countries are now a regular occurrence.
And with a new government in power, people such as Truong Anh Tuan, president of the Vietnamese Social-Cultural Society in Poland (VSCS) and owner of Warsaw's popular Dong Nam and Suparom Thai restaurants, are hoping that attention will be turned to finding solutions for some of this country's Vietnamese problems. It was to Tuan that Can first turned for help when his new documents were denied. Tuan estimates that the VSCS helps in about 100 cases like Can's every year.
"Some of them - people like Can - we can help," said Tuan, who has been in Poland since 1976 and became a Polish citizen in 1991. "If someone is serious about staying in Poland and has kept within the law, they have every right to stay here."
The Polish Agency for Foreign Investment (PAIZ) is working with the government on this issue. Paweł Gołźbiowski, head of PAIZ's Japanese investments, declined to talk specifics, but said PAIZ is aware that there are "some problems obtaining work permits, not only for Vietnamese people, but Japanese people and other Asian nations."
He added that Poland has been slow to recognize the potential trade opportunities that the Vietnamese community offers, but said the government with its "new ideas and policies will result in some kind of trading projects and investment projects and a new way of thinking."
To date, the level of Vietnamese investment in Poland is so minuscule it doesn't warrant monitoring by PAIZ.
Brothers in arms
The Polish-Vietnamese relationship began in 1955 when communist North Vietnam was created. Poland, along with its eastern-bloc neighbors, welcomed its new comrades. Diplomatic and trade links were established and Vietnamese were invited to study at Polish universities for free.
However, all that changed when the system collapsed in 1989.
Tuan, who came to Poland in 1976 on a scholarship to study physics, said Poland had always treated "Vietnam like a sister." But under the capitalist system, "everything revolved around money. Poland had no feeling for Vietnam. It was strictly economic relations."
With its eyes now focusing on its Western European neighbors and the United States, Polish trade with Vietnam languished and the level of exports to Vietnam fell drastically. But Vietnam continued its interest in Poland and a new wave of migrants arrived in the 1990s, eager to establish businesses in Poland's growing economy. The majority of them worked in the restaurant industry, import-export and general retail.
Today, according to the Vietnamese embassy's commercial counselor, Nguyen Van Thiem, these businesses - many of them owned by Vietnamese graduates from Polish universities - now account for 60% of imports from Vietnam to Poland and about 70% of exports from Poland to Vietnam.
In monetary terms, the Economy Ministry calculates that last year the turnover in Polish-Vietnamese trade was about $130 million. Of this, Vietnamese exports to Poland accounted for $115 million and Polish exports to Vietnam were a rather frugal $16.5 million.
And these figures don't take in to account the "gray" and "black" business being carried out here by illegal Vietnamese workers.
"If Polish authorities, institutions and producers create better conditions for Vietnamese business in Poland, it might significantly increase the value of Polish exports to Vietnam, balancing the surplus in Vietnamese export to Poland," said commercial counselor Thiem.
The biggest trade areas are imports of Vietnamese coffee, rice, tea, textiles, shoes and instant soups, which alone are worth $6.8 million annually.
Powdered milk is Poland's biggest export to Vietnam, accounting for $10 million of total exports. Pharmaceuticals account for a further $3 million.
Helping to redress this trade imbalance, Poland is now paying closer attention to its Far East colleagues. President Aleksander Kwaśniewski visited Vietnam in February 1999 - where some of Vietnam's native Polish speakers serenaded him with "Sto Lat" ("100 years") - paving the way for future cooperation.
In 1999, a contract giving Vietnam $70 million in credit for sea transport expansion was provided. To date, contracts for $44 million have been signed. Other areas of cooperation include the power and chemical industries, environmental protection, food processing and agriculture. In the mining sector, a long-term barter deal on Polish mining machine supply, in exchange for rice has been established.
Vietnam has also been pinpointed (along with Yemen and Kazakhstan) for development cooperation by the Foreign Affairs Ministry's new department for United Nations (UN) economic and social affairs. Last year, under this program, a Vietnamese delegation visited the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE) after Vietnam established its own exchange in Ho Chi Minh City formerly Saigon. Just last month, another Vietnamese delegation came to look at the Polish health industry and pharmacology sector.
A memorandum of cooperation has been signed between the vice mayors of Warsaw and Hanoi, and one of the first common initiatives will be the construction of yet another shopping mall in Warsaw.
However, the Economy Ministry is still concerned that trade is still too one-sided, with more than 15 representative offices of Vietnamese state-owned companies in Poland, more than 20 private companies and over 200 "Polish" companies owned by Vietnamese.
Polish success stories
The only success stories of Polish companies in Vietnam to date include pharmaceutical giant Ciech-Polfa, which sold drugs worth $2.8 million in Vietnam last year, and the Sopot-based jigsaw puzzle company Trefl. The company was approached by a Vietnamese businessman based in Poland who could see an export market for Trefl's products in Vietnam.
The Economy Ministry is also concerned about the level of transparency that exists in Vietnam.
"The monopoly in (Vietnam's) foreign trade has been officially suppressed, but in fact one can trade with other countries only with the permission of Vietnam's Trade Ministry," a ministry spokesperson said.
Product distribution channels are almost non-existent in Vietnam and little independent market information is available.
"In such conditions," said the Economy Ministry spokesperson, "exports from Poland to Vietnam, especially cash ones are extremely difficult. It's dominated by Vietnamese living in Poland thanks to good family ties, which have permission from local authorities for exporting and importing goods.
"We estimate that more than 80% of Polish exports to Vietnam are done that way."
But Poland has a secret weapon to help promote its business with Vietnam: The 7,000 Vietnamese who have graduated from Polish universities and colleges since the 1950s. Around half of them still live in Poland. Of those who returned to Vietnam, many of them now hold top political and business positions in Vietnam. The Vietnamese ambassador in Poland holds a PhD. in Polish literature and has translated many classic Polish authors and poets into Vietnamese.
During his 1999 visit to Vietnam, Kwaśniewski called people like him "the greatest potential for cooperation between Poland and Vietnam."
Getting tough
But the problem of Poland's treatment of its Vietnamese community is still an issue that will need to be tackled. So far, the government's reaction has been to get tough: According to the Immigration and Repatriation Office, in the first half of this year, three Vietnamese were granted work visas by their local voivoidships and 81 visas for residents (without permission to work) were granted. Compare this to 1988's figures of 1,692 work visas and 2,662 resident visas. By 2000, the figure had fallen to 15 work visas and 205 residents visas. And as Poland heads ever closer to European Union (EU) membership, the general opinion is that immigration laws in Poland will become even tougher.
Despite some sensationalized media stories in the past about high crime levels and mafia links, police records note that 61 Vietnamese were suspected of committing a crime last year. And according to Zbigniew Żaroń, chief of the police headquarters' prevention services, "the Vietnamese community doesn't look bad in comparison with other minority groups."
One solution being offered by Piotr Gadzinowski - a Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) MP and member of the interparliamentary Polish-Vietnamese Friendship Group that was formed in December last year - is to declared amnesty for all illegal Vietnamese immigrants living and working in Poland.
"Then they will have to start paying taxes, and transfer money to banks," said Gadzinowski, "not in their suits or under the table."
Celia Barnes
