ABSTRACT
Arriving at Pochentong airport on a Sunday morning, the author's first sight was a bumper to bumper traffic jam, heading out of town, the new middle class of Phnom Penh on their way to the beach at Sihanoukville. Over the next two years, a series of shocks rocked the Vietnamese economy — declining growth rates, peasant unrest, a crippling typhoon and the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis. Longer term, the ten-year socioeconomic strategy adopted by the Ninth Party Congress in April 2001 set ambitious targets for the 2001-10 period. The goal of the long-term strategy was to lead Vietnam out of underdevelopment, laying the foundations for a modern, industrialized country by 2020. As it approached the new millennium, the Vietnamese Communist Party faced daunting challenges in reconciling competing political interests with deepening economic reforms. Thailand in mid-2004 ranked ninth among foreign investors in Vietnam, and it was the second-leading ASEAN investor after Singapore.
