ABSTRACT
I AN OVERVIEW OF VIET NAM'S DEVELOPMENT: STAGES OF INDUSTRIALIZATION
The earliest industrial activities in Viet Nam date back to the period of French colonialism, which began in the mid-nineteenth century. These activities did not aim at a genuine industrialization of the colony, but rather to produce goods for direct local consumption by the French and Viet namese elite . 1 Although the French made some contributions to education and training in the French language, these activities added little to the general development of the colony and, after sixty years of French rule, 80 per cent of the population was still illiterate (Buttinger: 1 982, p. 68).
