ABSTRACT
After 15 years of very successful poverty reduction, Vietnam remains a very poor country. However, living conditions have improved substantially for the largest part of the population, both in urban and rural areas. By the mid 2000s there was a widespread optimism (shared by the government and the donors’ community that Vietnam would be able to ‘graduate’ from the status of LDC by 2010 and would be able to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) ahead of schedule in several areas. The impressive results achieved since the late 1980s were due to a sustained period of economic growth, which (contrary to the experience of many other developing countries) effectively managed to ‘trickle down’. The Vietnamese experience was so remarkable that the country came to be considered a model for other developing countries in the region and beyond. The interpretation of this success, however, was open to alternative readings. Until the late 1990s the international financial institutions continued to warn on the need for bolder measures in liberalizing the economy if growth and poverty reduction targets had to be met. The government did continue to reform the economy, but the steps were certainly less daring and less rapid than those suggested by the international agencies. Was the Vietnamese success a result of the advice received from the international financial institutions? Or was success the result of the Vietnamese careful and gradual implementation of the reform process?
