Economic history of Vietnam
Though the plan exaggerated regional divisions, the development of exports--coal from the North, rice from the South—and the importation of French manufactured goods stimulated internal commerce.
Doi Moi combined economic planning with free-market incentives and encouraged the establishment of private businesses in the production of consumer goods and foreign investment, including foreign-owned enterprises.
However, between 2003 and 2005 Vietnam fell dramatically in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report rankings, mostly due to negative perceptions of the effectiveness of government institutions.
Literate people of Dai La started using Chinese characters in their writing, although they were rarely recorded by historians in this period, while merchants had access to established market facilities.
On the other hand, economic development would be much easier due to much larger population, skilled labor force, ready-to-use transport systems (by rivers, canals), and much more fertile agricultural lands.
He commanded the building of Cổ Xá dyke along the part of Red River flowing through Thăng Long (Hanoi) to protect the capital city from unexpected floods.
Being engaged in series of border wars with its southern neighbor, Champa, Trần Dynasty at times showed its military strength, supported by economic wealth, and gradually implemented a southward expansion.
The first history work which was ever written in Vietnam was finished in 1272, Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu by the historian Lê Văn Hưu.
Historians cited reasons of his failures in these reforms as being implemented in very short time and conflict of interests with aristocrats (owners of wealth), merchants, hence urban artisans.
Rarely useful spending was documented for instance dyke building to prevent cropland flood, frequently occurring in the Red River Delta causing famine and starvation of farmers.
Clearly his situation, positive effects brought about by Lê Thánh Tông's economic policies were further bolstered with help of a reasonably long period of peace.
This king was going even further in his decisive promotion of economic growth by re-planning the then-largest urban area of Thăng Long to conceptually consist of 36 trading streets, each was somewhat specialized in a specific categories of related goods.
Artisan-residents and skilled workers from outside then poured their investments in Thăng Long, hence further attracting more merchants from different places, in seeking entrepreneurial opportunities in a promising land.
Things that are worthwhile even today were then high quality silk, embroidery, and embroidered cloths, hand-made jewelry, furniture, copper appliances, leather products, casting technique, printing services, etc.
[10] It was said that Jean de la Croix was the first Portuguese to have established a cannon molding mill–perhaps a lucrative business operation–in Thuận Hóa town, near Hue in the central region in 1614.
More importantly, French ship Machault embarked on Hội An in 1749 and presented a letter proposing first formal diplomatic relationship with Lord Nguyên, which received his warm regard.
Following Portuguese and Dutch businessmen, many Japanese, Chinese, Siamese (Thai) tradesmen arrived and set up commercial operation in this town, making it the second most important urban areas in the North, only after Thăng Long.
In most works, when writing this part of the history, Vietnamese historians usually extol Quang Trung Nguyễn Huệ of the Tây Sơn with flowery words on his brilliant military victories over Siamese and Qing invading forces.
Nonetheless, from the economic view, he did not perform well since being engaged in non-stop military battles no real effort was made for reconstructing the economy in bad shape, or at least no words were found writing about any measures of boosting trades, agricultural production or industrial manufacturing.
[1] During the 1954-75 Vietnam War, United States air strikes in the North, beginning in early 1965, slowed large-scale construction considerably as laborers were diverted to repairing bomb damage.
[1] Meanwhile, South Vietnam's free market economy conducted extensive trade with other anti-communist or non-communist countries, such as the US, Canada, France, West Germany, Japan and Thailand.
The United States, the foremost donor, helped finance the development of the military and the construction of roads, bridges, airfields and ports; supported the currency; and met the large deficit in the balance of payments.
The party plays a leading role in establishing the foundations and principles of communism, mapping strategies for economic development, setting growth targets, and launching reforms.
[1] However, since reunification in 1976, the economy of Vietnam has been plagued by enormous difficulties in production, imbalances in supply and demand, inefficiencies in distribution and circulation, soaring inflation rates, rising debt problems, governmental corruption and illegal asset confiscations by local authorities.
Reasons for this mediocre economic performance have included adverse climatic conditions that afflicted agricultural crops, bureaucratic mismanagement, elimination of private ownership, extinction of entrepreneurial and professional classes in the South, and military occupation of Cambodia (which resulted in a cutoff of much-needed international aid for reconstruction).
[1] Vietnam was incapable, however, of undertaking such an ambitious program on its own and solicited financial support for its Second Five-Year Plan from Western nations, international organizations, and communist allies.
[1] To address these problems, at its Fifth National Party Congress held in March 1982, the VCP approved resolutions on "orientations, tasks and objectives of economic and social development for 1981-85 and the 1980s."
The policies arrived at called for the temporary retention of private capitalist activities in order to spur economic growth and the completion, more or less, of a communist transformation in the South by the mid-1980s.
[1] The plan's highest priority, however, was to develop agriculture by integrating the collective and individual sectors into an overall system emphasizing intensive cultivation and crop specialization and by employing science and technology.
Late in 1983, a number of import-export firms that had been created in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) to spur the development of the export market were integrated into a single enterprise regulated by the state.
