ABSTRACT
Even before the onset of the regional economic crisis the ‘official wisdom’ had already converged in identifying four main issues as cornerstones for the enhancement of the economic reform: (1) privatization of SOEs, (2) reform of the financial sector, (3) trade liberalization and (4) development of the private sector. This agenda was confirmed after the crisis by the major international agencies (e.g. World Bank 1999a; IMF 1999a; UNDP 1998). Officially, the Vietnamese authorities subscribed to this agenda; in reality, significant resistance on key aspects of this package did exist. In the words of Tran Xuan Gia, at the time Minister of Planning and Investment at the donors Consultative Group Meeting in December 1999:
We all agree on what reforms need to be done. The discussion is about how. We agree that without accelerated reforms we cannot grow rapidly and therefore the question is how best to accelerate the ‘doi moi’ process (World Bank homepage, emphasis in the original).
