Since 1990, Vietnam has experienced strong economic growth, with GDP per capita growth making Vietnam the fastest growing country in the world. From 2000 to present, Vietnam has grown an average of 6.4% per year. Even though the global economy is unstable, Vietnam’s economy is still capable of recovering. The ability of recovering can be listed as Vietnam’s basic growth engine; demand for production and in the direction of domestic exports increased sharply.

The economic structure

The structure of the economic sectors has gradually shifted towards industrialization and modernization, promoting comparative advantages in each industry and region to increase development efficiency and quality.

Although the share of GDP continues to decline, agriculture still plays a vital role in Vietnam’s economy. The greatest success of the renovation is that the poverty rate has been reduced to below 10% thanks to the implementation of the forms of rural economic restructuring, focusing on developing diverse industries, occupations, and applying modern scientific, and technical achievements.

Vietnam’s service industry has changed markedly in both quantity and quality. The regional structure has shifted towards promoting comparative advantages, with a more regional economic role, and there are mechanisms to encourage financial restructuring in each region.

The labor structure has been shifted by reducing the percentage of labor in pure agricultural production, increasing the proportion of labor in industry and services.

The economic management

The process of renovating the state management of the economy over the past 20 years has started from the change of awareness and application of economic laws. With the right direction in the 1991-2000 economic stability and development strategy, Vietnam has escaped the socio-economic crisis for many years.

One of the fundamental changes that the renovation brings is the policy and policy of developing a multi-sector economy. The number of industries limited to private or foreigners in the previous time has gradually been narrowed. Therefore all economic sectors are allowed to do business in agriculture, industry, and service industries.

The economic growth

The 6th National Party Congress in 1986 of the Communist Party of Vietnam was marked as a historic turning point initiating the renovation of the country’s economy. Since then, Vietnam has made tremendous changes, opening up, and integrating into the world. As a result, after more than 20 years of renovation, Vietnam’s economy has achieved impressive results.

Thanks to the increase in percentage of accumulation for development investment, the accumulation – consumption balance has been much improved. Infrastructure has grown significantly in particularly since 2010 when the total length of the national highway has reached over 17,300 km. Irrigation systems have been upgraded in different regions, creating favorable conditions for increasing agricultural productivity. Service facilities such as tourism, post, and telecommunications, transportation, banking and finance, insurance, retail distribution, etc. have overgrown.

Foreign investment is sharply increasing. From 1988 to 2010, there were 13,544 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in Vietnam with a total registered capital of 213 billion USD. The FDI sector currently accounts for about 17% of GDP, 43.4% of industrial production value, attracting 1.7 million direct employees and millions of indirect workers.

Vietnam’s economy continues to show a concrete foundation, with the support of strong domestic demand and export-oriented manufacturing. Depend on the forecast of global economic and trade growth, Vietnam’s growth rate is also forecasted to decrease slightly; however it still maintains at a relatively high level of 6.8%.