ABSTRACT
Vietnam was among the world’s forty poorest countries with seven out of ten Vietnamese living in poverty by the mid-1980s. As a centrally planned economy, its production, distribution and consumption decisions were made by the government, with a very limited role of private sector. This substantially discouraged the growth prospect and resulted in higher poverty. However, this scenario has changed substantially with the opening of the economy in the late 1980s. The Vietnamese economy has experienced an unprecedented growth and poverty reduction in recent years and is seen as an example of a successful transition from a centrally planned to a market-oriented economy. This chapter presents the Vietnamese experience with market reforms and poverty alleviation.
