Vietnam’s Economy in Transition — Perspectives of Economic Development —

Abstract

In recent years, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam has opened up economically and politically. This opening process can be expected to be continued with all due determination in the years to come. Both Japan and the Western industrialized nations have paid increasing attention to Vietnam’s new course. However, it is striking that particularly the Asian Newly Industrializing Countries (NICs), such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, see an interesting economic partner in Vietnam. They lead the list of foreign investors in terms of countries of origin. However, Vietnam still counts as one of the poorest developing countries. Yet none of the other countries which can be included in the class of “Socialist-Oriented Developing Countries” (SODCs), such as Benin, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Laos, Madagascar, Tanzania, Burma, Iraq, Mozambique, Nicaragua or Syria, has been the subject of such a relatively large amount of attention. The fascination exercised by Vietnam can be explained by a number of factors, including the way it has taken in its stride the daunting after-effects of the war, the reunification of July 1976 and the process of transformation introduced at the end of the 1970s.