Changes in the Vietnamese society over the past thirty years, particularly since the Doi moi reform.

During the past 30 years, especially since 1986 when the Doi moi reform was launched, Vietnam has recorded enormous and comprehensive achievements of historic significance. These achievements, which have brought about changes in all aspects of the society, include high economic growth, improved living standards of the people, maintained socio-political stability, expanded foreign relations and enhanced position of the nation in the world arena. The most outstanding achievement is sustained high economic growth rates for consecutive years (the second highest rates in Asia). From 1991 to 2000, Vietnam had doubled its GDP with the annual growth rate of 7.5%. Since 2001, average GDP growth rate is as sustained as over 7%. In 2004, it was 7.6% as compared to 2003. The economic structure has been changed with increasing industry proportion in GDP from 27.4% to 40.09% in 1985 and 2004 respectively, service sector from 32.5% to 38.15% and decreasing agriculture-forestry and fishery ratio from 40.2% to 21.76%. For the past three years, the average growth rate was 7.1%, the figure in 2004 was 7.6%. The economic structure has been shifted in a positive direction with increasing shares of the industrial and service sectors and declining proportion of agriculture in the GDP. The environment for foreign investment has become more liberal. The Foreign Investment Law and series of other legal documents have step by step established transparent and attractive legal framework for foreign businesses. By November 2004, more than 5,000 FDI projects have been effective with a total registered capital of over 45.5 billion USD and over 50% are under operation with a realized capital of 26 billion USD. In 2004 alone, FDI attracted was over 4.1 billion USD of which 2.3 billion are from new projects and 1.8 come from project expansions. Foreign invested enterprises contribute to nearly 15% of GDP, more than 30% export value and 4.9% state budget revenue, generating dozens of thousands of jobs. Vietnam’s export in the past years has also increased, reaching US$26 billion in 2004, a 30% increase as compared to 2003. Vietnam is one of the world’s leading exporters of agricultural products namely rice, coffee and pepper. Crude oil, textile and garments and footwear are industries with export volume of over 2 billion USD. Two commodities that exported over 1 billion USD value in 2004 are wood furniture and electronics and PCs. Import value in 2004 was 31.5 billion USD, a 25% increase in comparison to 2003. Trade deficit was 5.5 billion USD, accounting for 21.2% of export value. Market institutions such as stock, financial, labor and real estate markets have been established and started to operate in Vietnam. While promoting economic development, the State of Vietnam also pays great attention to addressing social issues, spending more than one third of the total investment capital on poverty reduction, human resource development, education-training, science-technology, health and culture. The people’s life has been improved substantially. Most social targets were reached or surpassed; 1.5 million jobs have been generated annually, from 1995 to 2003, GDP per capita had doubled. The poverty rate according to international standards reduced from 58% to 28.9% within 10 years, from 1993 to 2002, which meant around 25 million people escaped poverty. Vietnam has been recognized by the United Nations as one of the world’s most successful countries in poverty reduction. Citizens’ rights stated under the Constitution, including the right to freedom of belief and legal religious practicing, are guaranteed. The number of religious followers and dignitaries as well as religious establishments in Vietnam continues to increase. The people’s right to mastery is respected on the basis of “people know, people discuss, people do, people monitor and people benefit”. The legal system has been increasingly improved to build a law-governed state of people, for the people and by the people. The foreign policy “Vietnam is willing to be a friend and a reliable partner of all countries” has yielded positive results. To date, Vietnam has established diplomatic ties with 168 countries and trade relations with 165 countries and territories worldwide. Vietnam is now an active member of many international and regional organizations and forums such as the UN, ASEAN, APEC and ASEM. Vietnam is also expected to join the WTO soon. Beside all these achievements, there remain weaknesses and shortcomings, such as growth quality, sustainability and its equal benefits such as in the production and service sectors. In the industrial sector, the output increased by 16% while the added value only rose by 10.7%. Prices of domestic goods and services increased and competitiveness of goods and commodities remained low. 2005 major targets: GDP growth rate increases by 8.5%; industrial and construction output by 16%, added value by 11%; agro-forestry and fishery sector by 5,2% and added value by 3.8%; added value in services by 8.2%; export by 16%; CPI by under 6.5%; poor households brought down to under 7%; create 1.6 million jobs. END