ABSTRACT
At the end of the American war Vietnam had a dilapidated infrastructure and two dysfunctional and disconnected economies. Today it is a middle-income country and one of the fastest growing in the world, with negligible poverty rates and social indicators matching those of advanced economies. At the same time, Vietnam remains one of the only five nominally communist countries in the world, and while it is clearly a market economy, the authorities insist on its “socialist orientation”. Which of these two countries is the real Vietnam? The answer proposed in this chapter is both. It is easy to get disappointed by the country’s gradual approach to economic reform or by its reluctance to embrace political reform. But it would be shortsighted to ignore its remarkable accomplishments. The period of adherence to central planning principles was brief compared to other countries in the then communist block: Doi Moi happened less than a decade after reunification and a full five years before the collapse of the Soviet Union. The economic transformation that followed was almost as rapid as China’s, but it was more inclusive. The obvious question is: How did it all happen? This chapter describes Vietnam’s extraordinary journey, emphasizing the role of enlightened leadership and consensus building. At the same time, it highlights the potential roadblocks this approach could stumble upon as Vietnam becomes an economically more sophisticated and socially more modern country.
