ABSTRACT
The challenge of public administration reform in Vietnam is inextricably connected to the problems arising from the creation of a market economy. This economic transition entails a transformation of the roles and structures of the state as well as of the economy and, more broadly, of society. While economic reform in Vietnam is not accompanied by political reform of the kind that would result in dismantling the power of the ruling Communist Party, state reforms of other kinds are a key element in the overall reform agenda. The agenda of reform reaches into all the institutions of government. Not surprisingly, therefore, the reform process is contested, the pace of change is slow and the reach into different parts of the system is uneven.
