Resource information
The focus of the report, combined with
Vietnam's remarkable long-term growth potential,
presents a favorable outlook, suggesting the effects of the
East Asian crisis are over. The country is committed to
socially inclusive development, and, translates a vision of
transition towards a market economy, with socialist
orientation into concrete public actions, emphasizing the
transition should be pro-poor, noting this will require
investments in the rural, and lagging regions, and a more
gradual reform implementation, than often recommended.
However, challenges identified include, first, further
progress in economic reform - fast progress in liberalizing
foreign trade, and integrating with world economy is
increasingly at odds with the slowdown of state-owned
enterprise reform. Second, poverty alleviation may be
endangered - for in the absence of vigorous action,
inequality is likely to increase. And, third, improving the
quality of governance faces an economic inefficient
mismatch, reflected by its legal framework, budgetary
system, and administrative structures, resulting from the
inherited centrally-planned economy. The report reviews the
increasing inequalities, and the need to redress imbalances,
indicating that - although needed - economic reforms, trade
liberalization, and the transformation of state-owned
enterprises, may create losers, while many of the gains of
the last decade remain fragile. The Comprehensive Poverty
Reduction and Growth Strategy (CPRGS) identified key
decisions that need to be made, supported by strong
inter-ministerial coordination for its implementation,
namely rolling out to provincial, district, and commune
levels in order to better align priorities, and expenditures
to the national development goals, supported by external assistance.
