Introduction

Summary

Vietnam is a medium-sized country, with an area of about 331,700 square kilometres, and a population of about 70 million. It is blessed with rich natural resources, with considerable reserves of coal, oil and gas, bauxite, and rare earth, as well as luxuriant vegetation throughout the year, thanks to the humid tropical climate.

It also has a large labour force, which is younger in age and better educated compared with other countries at a similar level of per capita income. Good workmanship, creativity, and a high regard for innovation are inherent in the Vietnamese, and this enables them to quickly absorb scientific and technological advances.

Vietnam's ability to safeguard its independence as well as overcome great socio-economic difficulties in past decades provides grounds for believing that with a capable leadership at the helm implementing appropriate and timely policies, the country is able to hasten up its pace of economic development and participate in the world economy.

Vietnam's history saw incessant wars waged till the mid-1970s to safeguard the country's independence and unity. Partially on account of this, many generations of Vietnamese had missed out on the opportunity to learn and accumulate experience in the field of economics. North Vietnam's centrally planned economy was based on that of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, though this model was greatly altered by war circumstances. In South Vietnam an economy with a colonial structure continued to survive, and it relied on preferential aid and assistance from the powers that participated in the war.

After the unification of the country in 1975, Vietnam was intent on working out a path of development suited to its own unique conditions, and this it did largely by trial and error. Hampered by the deficiencies and innumerable obstacles of an underdeveloped and a war-ravaged economy, Vietnam nevertheless struggled to renew its economy, and this within the context of a rapidly changing world. Finally, a marketoriented economy together with its new institutions has begun to take shape.