ABSTRACT
Following the liberation of South Vietnam in April 1975, the new government of the country pursued two major economic goals: to achieve unification of North and South under a socialist regime similar to that already developing in North Vietnam and to build a modern economic system in Vietnam. These two processes, which are regarded as inseparable by the Vietnamese since they view socialist production as 'large scale socialist production' ,1 are referred to as the processes of transformation and construction. As far as South Vietnam is concerned, the transformation aspect of this duality is aimed at bringing about uniform socialist relations of production. At the same time, the construction phase is intended to transform the region from a predominantly small-scale, backward economy, based on individual enterprise, into a modern, centrally planned production system in which the means of production are socially owned.
