ABSTRACT
Economic growth in Vietnam has been remarkable over the past two decades due to the economic reform strategy (Doi moi), which started in the mid-1980s. In early 1990s, annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth averaged 7.4 per cent, more than double the rate of the previous decade (Zhu 2002). The Asian Crisis reduced this figure to 4.8 per cent in 1999 but growth has risen during the last few years, reaching 7.2 per cent in 2003 (see Table 10.1) (UNDP 2004). Since 2000, Vietnam’s GDP growth has been the second fastest in the East Asian region after China (Saigon Times Magazine 2004; Xuan Trung 2004).
