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Until French [[French colonial empire|colonization]] in the middle of the 19th century, the [[economy]] of [[Vietnam]] was mainly [[agrarian economy|agrarian]] and village-oriented. French colonizers, however, deliberately developed the regions differently, designating the South for agricultural production and the North for [[manufacturing]]. 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.<ref name=cs>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/vntoc.html Vietnam country study]. [[Library of Congress]] [[Federal Research Division]] (December 1987). ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the [[public domain]].''</ref>▼
[[File:GDP per capita development in Vietnam.svg|thumb|[[GDP per capita]] of Vietnam between 1820 and 2018]]{{History of Vietnam}}
▲Until French [[French colonial empire|colonization]] in the middle of the 19th century, the [[economy]] of [[Vietnam]] was mainly [[agrarian economy|agrarian]] and village-oriented. However, French colonizers, however, deliberately developed the regions differently, designating the South for agricultural production and the North for [[manufacturing]]. 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.<ref name=cs>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/vntoc.html Vietnam country study]. [[Library of Congress]] [[Federal Research Division]] (December 1987). ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the [[public domain]].''</ref>
 
When the North and South were divided politically in 1954, they also adopted different economic ideologies: [[communist|communism]] in the North and [[capitalist|capitalism]] in the South. Destruction caused by the 1954-1975
[[Second Indochina War]] (commonly known as the Vietnam War) seriously strained Vietnam's economy. Across Vietnam, the situation was worsened by the country's 3 million military and civilian deaths and its later exodus of 2.1 million refugees, including tens of thousands of professionals, intellectuals, technicians, and skilled workers.<ref name=cs/>
 
Between 1976 and 1986, for annual growth rates for industry, agriculture, and national income and aimed to integrate the North and the South, the plan's aims were not achieved: the economy remained dominated by small-scale production, low [[labor productivity]], unemployment, material and technological shortfalls, and insufficient food and consumer goods.<ref name=cs/> The more modest goals of the [[Third Five-Year Plan (Vietnam)|Third Five-Year Plan]] (1981–1985) were a compromise between ideological and pragmatic factions; they emphasized the development of agriculture and industry. Efforts were also made to decentralize planning and improve the managerial skills of government officials.<ref name=cs/>
 
In 1986 Vietnam launched a political and economic renewal campaign ([[Doi Moi]]) that introduced reforms intended to facilitate the transition from a centrally [[planned economy]] to form of [[market socialism]] officially termed "[[Socialist-oriented market economy]]." 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. By the late 1990s, the success of the business and agricultural reforms ushered in under Doi Moi was evident.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Chính|first1=Phạm Minh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UOWeP5ehjGwC&pg=PA186|title=Kinh tế Việt Nam: Thăng trầm và đột phá|last2=Hoàng|first2=Vương Quân|date=2009|publisher=NXB Chính trị Quốc gia, Hà Nội}}</ref> More than 30,000 private businesses had been created, and the economy was growing at an annual rate of more than 7 percent, and [[poverty]] was nearly halved.<ref name=cp>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/profiles/Vietnam.pdf Vietnam country profile]. [[Library of Congress]] [[Federal Research Division]] (December 2005). ''This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the [[public domain]].''</ref>
 
In 2001 the [[Vietnamese Communist Party]] (VCP) approved a 10-year economic plan that enhanced the role of the [[private sector]] while reaffirming the primacy of the state sector in the economy. In 2003 the private sector accounted for more than one-quarter of all industrial output. However, between 2003 and 2005 Vietnam fell dramatically in the [[World Economic Forum]]'s [[Global Competitiveness Report]] rankings, largelymostly due to negative perceptions of the effectiveness of government institutions. Official [[Political corruption|corruption]] is epidemic, and Vietnam lags in property rights, the efficient regulation of markets, and labor and financial market reforms. Although Vietnam's economy, which continues to expand at an annual rate in excess of 7 percent, is one of the fastest-growing in the world, the economy is growing from an extremely low base, reflecting the crippling effect of the Second Indochina War (1954–75) and repressive economic measures introduced in its aftermath, as well as the effects of politically motivated sanctions put in place by the United States.
 
==Pre-colonial Vietnam==
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===Vietnam under Chinese rule===
 
Until the early in the 10th century, Vietnam–withVietnam—with many name variants adopted by various feudal kings–hadkings—was been most of the timemostly under the Chinese domination, for approximately 1053 years.
 
The first domination was happeningoccurred from 207 BC to 29 AD. A brief independent period followed with the coronation of female sister kings Trung Trac, and Trung Nhi, which ended in 43 AD. The second Chinese domination was the period from 43- to 544 AD. The coronation of Lý Nam Đế had gained the control of Vietnam from the Chinese hands for about 60-year Vietnamyears before the third Chinese domination, 603-907 AD. Historians tell us that thea slaveryslave regimesociety was still prevalent in Vietnam in around 900 AD.<ref>Dang Duy Phuc (2006) Giản Yếu Sử Việt Nam, Hanoi Publisher, Vietnam.</ref> Hanoi, the then called Dai La, was described toas havehaving been a populatedpopulous and thriving urban area since the end of the 9th century. Its residents and merchants traded silk, ivory, gold, silver, paddy rice and other agro-agricultural products.
 
Besides fairly developed horticulture, artisans of the urban Dai La were also able to master important skills for goldsmithgoldsmithing, copper casting and molding, and iron casting. Literate people of Dai La started using Chinese characters in their writing, works–althoughalthough they were notrarely recorded much by historians but did exist in this period–whileperiod, while merchants could have reasonablehad access to established market facilities. Economic life of thein historical Vietnam would of course havehad much to dealdo with the following history of warfareswarfare, economic policies by various feudalist governments–particularlygovernments—particularly those set by the most influential kings–andkings—and advancements made by so many ordinary people while pursuingattempting to improve their economic well-being, many of themwhom arewould now be called by modern economic researchers entrepreneurs.
 
===Nascent economy in feudalist society===
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Over 25 centuries of its history before the mid-19th century, Vietnam's economy had traditionally consisted of agrarian production and small-scaled handicraft industries. It was almost closed with negligible volume of foreign trade, and most of the time displayed a village-oriented [[autarky]].
 
The economic life of an independent Vietnam should perhaps started with [[Lê Hoàn]] (941-1005)–the founding king of the [[First Le dynasty|First Lê Dynasty—whoDynasty]]—who was rising to the kingship during the context of the demise of [[Đinh Tiên Hoàng]] and the threat of invasion by the Chinese Song Dynasty in 982. Being a king, Lê Hoàn was interested in developing the local economy and improving people's wealth. He had set himself to be an early example of a king participating in rice cultivating in Spring, right after Tết Holiday, an act that many later kings followed, to show that agricultural economy is very important to all Vietnamese. Also, perhaps in his understanding trade was equally important. He ordered to build several canals (Ba Hòa Canal to Thanh Hóa, Da Cái Canal to Nghệ An), with which not only farmers could later have a better irrigation system but merchants could conveniently develop their transport routes as well.
 
Under the reign of King [[Lý Công Uẩn]] (974-1028)—the founding father of Ly Dynasty, together with Tran and Second Lê, one of the most thriving and prosperous periods of the Vietnamese feudalist history—the capital city was relocated from Hoa Lu (Ninh Bình) to Đại La, and at the same time, Đại La was renamed to Thăng Long–meaning "dragon flying up". His concern of a new capital city was two-fold. On the one hand, Thăng Long was in a better position for self-defense purpose with many natural canals, rivers, mountains. The castle had already been well built. 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. The economic reality proved his point positively.
 
His son, King Lý Thái Tông (1000–1054), added further encouraging policies for economic development such as tax reduction, while trying to remain budget balance and even budget surplus. He enthusiastically encouraged local production by advising people to use local-made handicraft products and even order imperial madesmaids to weave silk and fabrics themselves, so that they would not later have to rely on imports from the Chinese merchants. The fourth king of Lý Nhân Tông (1066-1127)–was highly regarded as the most capable one in all kings of Lý was also the one that further concentrated on improving economic conditions for people to make their livings. 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. Killing of buffalos and oxen–used by Viet people for rice field ploughing–was strictly prohibited. He also proactively sought to further develop the market system in Thăng Long, together with transport means for goods. As a consequence of his policies, artisans focused on manufacturing a variety of consumers’ goods such as dyestuff, fabrics, paper, copper, furniture, and so on.
 
Under Trần Dynasty (1225-1400), Thăng Long continued to be an economic and industrial hub, and reached a somewhat higher level of development, perhaps thanks to a reasonably long period of peace and the reputation of a commercial city. Foreign trade then provided more exciting opportunities for both local residents and foreign merchants–mostly Chinese and Ugurian (from Central Asia)–who opened shops for exchanging various consumer's goods. Agriculture also improved with increasing area of cropland gained, which had been reclaimed by military force and ordinary people, and more agricultural lands were better irrigated. The economic development policies adopted by early Trần's kings inherited the idea formulated by one of the most well-known senior general of Vietnam's history–Trần Thủ Độ–who had decided to bolster the economic development of the capital city by more economic reform so that savings and wealth could help contribute to a bolstered military force. The Trần Dynasty was best known for its three triumphant defeats of the formidable and mighty arm forces of the Mongols–in 1258, 1285 and 1288–which had swept through many Asian and European borders in the 18th century.<ref>After the first Tran Dynasty’s defeat of the Mongols, the world’s most mighty army in the 18th century led by Koubilai–a grandson to GengisGenghis Khan, in 1258, a newly crowned king of Trần Dynasty, Trần Thánh Tông ordered homeless and poor Viet people to go reclaiming waste and virgin soil in various delta areas in the North, expanding the cropland for farmers.</ref>
 
In an early modern history book, ''Việt Nam Sử Lược'', one could see clearly that throughout the history,<ref>Trần Trọng Kim, 2002(1919), Việt Nam Sử Lược, NXB Van Hoa Thong Tin, Hanoi</ref> Vietnam's economic activities had been rarely mentioned and clearly poorly documented. However, it did mention that gold had been used as money, with unit being a tael. Each tael could be exchanged for 70 quan–the formal coin minted and circulated by the Trần Dynasty in the first half of the 13th century (from 1225–12531225 to 1253).<ref>Tael is a Chinese jewelry measure, which is still used widely in the present day in Vietnam, equivalent to 37.5 grams. We have no clue whether the tael described in Tran {2002, 1919} is the same measure as that of that present.</ref> The currency was then used to pay personal tax, one quan per head each year. Nonetheless, the most important tax should arguably{{According to whom|date=June 2015}} come from farming production, mostly levied paddy rice fields, and was actually paid in rice. There existed many other type of taxes, such as for production of salt, fish, vegetable, and many other consumers goods alike. 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. Given the economic prosperity in some substantial periods under the reign of Trần, substantial cultural progress also emerged. Nôm scripts were invented and used in the first place in the 13th century under Trần Nhân Tông (1258–1308). 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. In this period, economic development served as the main propeller for overall development of the society, as well as the country's territorial expansion.
 
When the Hồ Dynasty (1400–1407) usurped the throne from the Trần, Hồ Quý Ly also implemented some economic changes, including unifying the weight and volume measure system, improving river-transporting means, establishing administrative system for collecting taxes and fees from merchants, building foodstuff reserve to intervene when market rice prices fluctuating too much, etc. Like previous kings of Trần, he perhaps pursued an improved government budget and arms force. 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.
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=== French Administration ===
<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/628349/Vietnam/52736/The-conquest-of-Vietnam-by-France Britannica article]</ref>
 
The French now moved to impose a Western-style administration on their colonial territories and to open them to economic exploitation. Under Gov. Gen. Paul Doumer, who arrived in 1897, French rule was imposed directly at all levels of administration, leaving the Vietnamese bureaucracy without any real power. Even Vietnamese emperors were deposed at will and replaced by others willing to serve the French. All important positions within the bureaucracy were staffed with officials imported from France; even in the 1930s, after several periods of reforms and concessions to local nationalist sentiment, Vietnamese officials were employed only in minor positions and at very low salaries, and the country was still administered along the lines laid down by Doumer.
 
Doumer's economic and social policies also determined, for the entire period of French rule, the development of French Indochina, as the colony became known in the 20th century. French Indochina was designated as a ''colonie d'exploitation'' (colony of economic interests) by the French government.
 
The railroads, highways, harbours, bridges, canals, and other public works built by the French were almost all started under Doumer, whose aim was a rapid and systematic exploitation of Indochina's potential wealth for the benefit of France; Vietnam was to become a source of raw materials and a market for tariff-protected goods produced by French industries. Funding for the colonial government came by means of taxes on locals and the French government established a near monopoly on the trade of opium, salt and rice alcohol. The trade of those three products formed about 44% of the colonial government's budget in 1920 but declined to 20% by 1930 as the colony began to economically diversify.
 
The colony's principal bank was the Banque de l'Indochine, established in 1875 and was responsible for minting the colony's currency, the Indochinese piastre. Indochina was the second most invested-in French colony by 1940 after Algeria, with investments totaling up to 6.7 million francs.
 
The exploitation of natural resources for direct export was the chief purpose of all French investments, with rice, coal, rare minerals, and later also rubber as the main products. Doumer and his successors up to the eve of World War II were not interested in promoting industry there, the development of which was limited to the production of goods for immediate local consumption. Among these enterprises—located chiefly in Saigon, Hanoi, and Haiphong (the outport for Hanoi)—were breweries, distilleries, small sugar refineries, rice and paper mills, and glass and cement factories. The greatest industrial establishment was a textile factory at Nam Dinh, which employed more than 5,000 workers. The total number of workers employed by all industries and mines in Vietnam was some 100,000 in 1930.
 
At the turn of the 20th century, the growing automobile industry in France resulted in the growth of the rubber industry in French Indochina, and plantations were built throughout the colony, especially in Annam and Cochinchina. France soon became a leading producer of rubber through its Indochina colony and Indochinese rubber became prized in the industrialized world. The success of rubber plantations in French Indochina resulted in an increase in investment in the colony by various firms such as Michelin. With the growing number of investments in the colony's mines and rubber, tea and coffee plantations, French Indochina began to industrialize as factories opened in the colony. These new factories produced textiles, cigarettes, beer and cement which were then exported throughout the French Empire.
 
Because the aim of all investments was not the systematic economic development of the colony but the attainment of immediate high returns for investors, only a small fraction of the profits was reinvested.
 
=== Effects of French colonial rule ===
 
Whatever economic progress Vietnam made under the French after 1900 benefited only the French and the small class of wealthy Vietnamese created by the colonial regime. The masses of the Vietnamese people were deprived of such benefits by the social policies inaugurated by Doumer and maintained even by his more liberal successors, such as Paul Beau (1902–07), Albert Sarraut (1911–14 and 1917–19), and Alexandre Varenne (1925–28). Through the construction of irrigation works, chiefly in the Mekong delta, the area of land devoted to rice cultivation quadrupled between 1880 and 1930. During the same period, however, the individual peasant's rice consumption decreased without the substitution of other foods. The new lands were not distributed among the landless and the peasants but were sold to the highest bidder or given away at nominal prices to Vietnamese collaborators and French speculators. These policies created a new class of Vietnamese landlords and a class of landless tenants who worked the fields of the landlords for rents of up to 60 percent of the crop, which was sold by the landlords at the Saigon export market. The mounting export figures for rice resulted not only from the increase in cultivable land but also from the growing exploitation of the peasantry.
 
The peasants who owned their land were rarely better off than the landless tenants. The peasants’ share of the price of rice sold at the Saigon export market was less than 25 percent. Peasants continually lost their land to the large owners because they were unable to repay loans given them by the landlords and other moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates. As a result, the large landowners of Cochinchina (less than 3 percent of the total number of landowners) owned 45 percent of the land, while the small peasants (who accounted for about 70 percent of the owners) owned only about 15 percent of the land. The number of landless families in Vietnam before World War II was estimated at half of the population.
 
The peasants’ share of the crop—after the landlords, the moneylenders, and the middlemen (mostly Chinese) between producer and exporter had taken their share—was still more drastically reduced by the direct and indirect taxes the French had imposed to finance their ambitious program of public works. Other ways of making the Vietnamese pay for the projects undertaken for the benefit of the French were the recruitment of forced labour for public works and the absence of any protection against exploitation in the mines and rubber plantations, although the scandalous working conditions, the low salaries, and the lack of medical care were frequently attacked in the French Chamber of Deputies in Paris. The mild social legislation decreed in the late 1920s was never adequately enforced.
 
Apologists for the colonial regime claimed that French rule led to vast improvements in medical care, education, transport, and communications. The statistics kept by the French, however, appear to cast doubt on such assertions. In 1939, for example, no more than 15 percent of all school-age children received any kind of schooling, and about 80 percent of the population was illiterate, in contrast to precolonial times when the majority of the people possessed some degree of literacy. With its more than 20 million inhabitants in 1939, Vietnam had but one university, with fewer than 700 students. Only a small number of Vietnamese children were admitted to the lycées (secondary schools) for the children of the French. Medical care was well organized for the French in the cities, but in 1939 there were only 2 physicians for every 100,000 Vietnamese, compared with 76 per 100,000 in Japan and 25 per 100,000 in the Philippines.
 
Two other aspects of French colonial policy are significant when considering the attitude of the Vietnamese people, especially their educated minority, toward the colonial regime: one was the absence of any kind of civil liberties for the native population, and the other was the exclusion of the Vietnamese from the modern sector of the economy, especially industry and trade. Not only were rubber plantations, mines, and industrial enterprises in foreign hands—French, where the business was substantial, and Chinese at the lower levels—but all other business was as well, from local trade to the great export-import houses. The social consequence of this policy was that, apart from the landlords, no property-owning indigenous middle class developed in colonial Vietnam. Thus, capitalism appeared to the Vietnamese to be a part of foreign rule; this view, together with the lack of any Vietnamese participation in government, profoundly influenced the nature and orientation of the national resistance movements.
 
==1954-1975==
{{see also|North Vietnamese đồng|South Vietnamese đồng|Economy of South Vietnam}}
When the North and South were [[Partition of Vietnam|divided politically in 1954]], they also adopted different economic ideologies, [[Command economy|one communist]] and [[Free market economy|one capitalist]]. In the North, the communist regime's First Five-Year Plan (1961–65) gave priority to heavy [[heavy industry]], but priority subsequently shifted to agriculture and light industry. All private enterprise and private ownership was prohibited.<ref name=cs/>
 
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. By the end of 1966, serious strains developed in the North's economy as a result of war conditions. Interruptions in electric power, the destruction of petroleum storage facilities, industrial and manufacturing facilities, and labor shortages led to a slowdown in industrial and agricultural activity. The disruption of transportation routes by U.S. bombing further slowed distribution of raw materials and consumer goods. Hanoi reported that in the North, all 6 industrial cities, 28 out of 30 provincial towns, 96 out of 116 district towns, and 4,000 out of 5,788 communes were either severely damaged or destroyed. All power stations, 1,600 hydraulics works, 6 railway lines, all roads, bridges, and sea and inland ports were seriously damaged or destroyed. In addition, 400,000 cattle were killed, and several thousand square kilometres of farmland were damaged. The Northern economy conducted trade almost exclusively with the [[USSR]] and its [[Eastern Bloc]] states and communist [[People's Republic of China Navy|China]], receiving substantial financial, material, and technical aid from the USSR and China to support the Northern economy, infrastructure and their war effort.<ref name=cs/>
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For Vietnam as a whole, the war resulted in some 3 million military and civilian deaths, 362,000 invalids, 1 million widows, and 800,000 orphans. The country sustained a further loss in [[brain drain|human capital]] through the [[Boat people|exodus of political refugees from Vietnam after the communist victory in the South]]. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, as of October 1982 approximately 1 million people had fled Vietnam. Among them were tens of thousands of professionals, intellectuals, technicians, and skilled workers.<ref name=cs/>
 
==Subsidy phaseperiod: 1976-1986==
{{main|Vietnam under the subsidy period}}
{{see also|Five-year plans of Vietnam|Subsidy Period}}
{{see also|Five-year plans of Vietnam}} Vietnam was [[Vietnamese reunification|reunited]] under the communist regime of the North in 1976. The Vietnamese economy is shaped primarily by the VCP through the plenary sessions of the Central Committee and national congresses. 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.<ref name=cs/>
 
Planning is a key characteristic of centralized, communist economies, and one plan established for the entire country normally contains detailed economic development guidelines for all its regions. According to Vietnamese economist Vo Nhan Tri, Vietnam's post-reunification economy was in a "period of transition to socialism." The process was described as consisting of three phases. The first phase, from 1976 through 1980, incorporated the Second Five-Year Plan (1976–80)--the First Five Year Plan (1960–65) applied to North Vietnam only. The second phase, called "socialist industrialization", was divided into two stages: from 1981 through 1990 and from 1991 through 2005. The third phase, covering the years 2006 through 2010, was to be time allotted to "perfect" the transition.<ref name=cs/>
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The party's goal was to unify the economic system of the entire country under communism. Steps were taken to implement this goal at the long-delayed Fourth National Party Congress, convened in December 1976, when the party adopted the Second Five-Year Plan and defined both its "line of socialist revolution" and its "line of building a socialist economy." The next two congresses, held in March 1982 and December 1986, respectively, reiterated this long-term communist objective and approved the five-year plans designed to guide the development of the Vietnamese economy at each specific stage of the communist revolution.<ref name=cs/>
 
However, since reunification in 1975, 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. Vietnam is one of the few countries in modern history to experience a sharp economic deterioration in a postwar reconstruction period. Its peacetime economy is one of the poorest in the world and has shown a negative to very slow growth in total national output as well as in agricultural and industrial production. Vietnam's gross domestic product (GDP) in 1984 was valued at US$18.1 billion with a per capita income estimated to be between US$200 and US$300 per year. 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).<ref>[{{Cite web|url=http://countrystudies.us/vietnam/45.htm]|title=Vietnam - the Economy}}</ref>
 
===The Second Five-Year Plan (1976-80)===
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The July 1984 Sixth Plenum (Fifth Congress) of the VCP Central Committee recognized that private sector domination of wholesale and retail trade in the South could not be eliminated until the state was capable of assuming responsibility for trade. Proposals therefore were made to decentralize planning procedures and improve the managerial skills of government and party officials.<ref name=cs/>
 
These plans were subsequently advanced at the Central Committee's Eighth Plenum (Fifth Congress).In in June 1985. Acting to disperse economic decision making, the plenum resolved to grant production autonomy at the factory and individual farm levels. The plenum also sought to reduce government expenditures by ending state subsidies on food and certain consumer goods for state employees. It further determined that all relevant costs to the national government needed to be accounted for in determining production costs and that the state should cease compensating for losses incurred by state enterprises. To implement these resolutions, monetary organizations were required to shift to modern economic accounting. The government created a new dong in September 1985, and set maximum quotas for the amount permitted to be exchanged in bank notes. The dong also was officially devalued.<ref name=cs/>
 
==1986-2000==
{{see also|Doi Moi|Equitisation}}
In 1986 Vietnam launched a political and economic innovation campaign (Doi Moi) that introduced reforms intended to facilitate the transition from a centralized economy to a "socialist-oriented market economy." Doi Moi combined government planning with free-market incentives. The program abolished agricultural collectives, removed price controls on agricultural goods, and enabled farmers to sell their goods in the marketplace.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Vuong, Quan Hoang |author2=Dam, Van Nhue |author3=Van Houtte, Daniel |author4=Tran, Tri Dung |date=Dec 2011 |title=The entrepreneurial facets as precursor to Vietnam's economic renovation in 1986 |journal=The IUP Journal of Entrepreneurship Development |volume=VIII |issue=4 |pages=6–47 |url=https://sites.google.com/site/gsvuong/Home/cabinet/6-47%20%281%29%20Entrepreneurial%20Facets_MUR_swarna.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1 |accessdateaccess-date=30 April 2014 |archive-date=13 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013190435/https://sites.google.com/site/gsvuong/Home/cabinet/6-47%20%281%29%20Entrepreneurial%20Facets_MUR_swarna.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1 |url-status=dead }}</ref> It encouraged the establishment of private businesses and foreign investment, including foreign-owned enterprises.<ref name="cp"/> It's important to note that Vietnam still uses [[Five-Year Plans of Vietnam|five-year plans]].
 
By the late 1990s, the success of the business and agricultural reforms ushered in under Doi Moi was evident. More than 30,000 private businesses had been created, and the economy was growing at an annual rate of more than 7 percent. From the early 1990s to 2005, poverty declined from about 50 percent to 29 percent of the population. However, progress varied geographically, with most prosperity concentrated in urban areas, particularly in and around Ho Chi Minh City. In general, rural areas also made progress, as rural households living in poverty declined from 66 percent of the total in 1993 to 36 percent in 2002. By contrast, concentrations of poverty remained in certain rural areas, particularly the northwest, north-central coast, and central highlands.<ref name=cp/>
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==2000-present==
{{Update|date=December 2021|reason=Only goes up to 2007!}}
The July 13, 2000, signing of the [[Bilateral Trade Agreement]] (BTA) between the United States and Vietnam was a significant [[milestone]] for Vietnam's economy. The BTA provided for Normal Trade Relations (NTR) status of Vietnamese goods in the U.S. market. Access to the U.S. market will allow Vietnam to hasten its transformation into a [[manufacturing]]-based, export-oriented economy. It would also concomitantly attract foreign investment to Vietnam, not only from the U.S., but also from Europe, Asia, and other regions.▼
 
▲The July 13, 2000, signing of the [[Bilateral Trade Agreement]] (BTA) between the United States and Vietnam was a significant [[milestone]] for Vietnam's economy.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Vietnam-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement |url=https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL30416.html |website=www.everycrsreport.com |language=en}}</ref> The BTA provided for Normal Trade Relations (NTR) status of Vietnamese goods in the U.S. market. Access to the U.S. market will allow Vietnam to hasten its transformation into a [[manufacturing]]-based, export-oriented economy. It would also concomitantly attract foreign investment to Vietnam, not only from the U.S., but also from Europe, Asia, and other regions.
 
In 2001 the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) approved a 10-year economic plan that enhanced the role of the private sector while reaffirming the primacy of the state. In 2003 the private sector accounted for more than one-quarter of all industrial output, and the private sector's contribution was expanding more rapidly than the public sector's (18.7 percent versus 12.4 percent growth from 2002 to 2003).<ref name=cp/> Growth then rose to 6% to 7% in 2000-02 even against the background of global recession, making it the world's second fastest-growing economy. Simultaneously, [[investment]] grew threefold and [[domestic savings]] quintupled.
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Vietnam had an average growth in GDP of 7.1% per year from 2000 to 2004. The GDP growth was 8.4% in 2005, the second largest growth in Asia, trailing only China's. Government figures of GDP growth in 2006, was 8.17%. According to Vietnam's Minister of Planning and Investment, the government targets a GDP growth of around 8.5% for 2007.
 
On January 11, 2007, Vietnam became [[WTO]]'s 150th member, after 11 years of preparation, including 8 years of negotiation.<ref>{{cite web |title=WTO {{!}} Accessions: Viet Nam |url=https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/acc_e/a1_vietnam_e.htm |website=www.wto.org |language=en}}</ref> Vietnam's access to WTO should provide an important boost to Vietnam's economy and should help to ensure the continuation of liberalizing reforms and create options for trade expansion. However, WTO accession also brings serious challenges, requiring Vietnam's economic sectors to open the door to increased foreign competition.<ref name=vn>Vuong, Quan-Hoang. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/3639233832 Financial Markets in Vietnam's Transition Economy: Facts, Insights, Implications]. {{ISBN|978-3-639-23383-4}}, [[VDM Verlag]], Feb. 2010, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.</ref>
 
Although Vietnam's economy, which continues to expand at an annual rate in excess of 7 percent, is one of the fastest-growing in the world, the economy is growing from an extremely low base, reflecting the crippling effect of the Second Indochina War (1954–75) and repressive economic measures introduced in its aftermath. Whether rapid economic growth is sustainable is open to debate.<ref name="vnturmoil">Napier, Nancy K.; Vuong, Quan Hoang. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0985530588/ What we see, why we worry, why we hope: Vietnam going forward.] Boise, ID: [[Boise State University CCI Press]], October 2013. {{ISBN|978-0985530587}}.</ref> The government may not be able to follow through with plans to scale back trade restrictions and reform state-owned enterprises. Reducing trade restrictions and improving transparency are keys to gaining full membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), as hoped by mid-2006. The government plans to reform the state-owned sector by partially privatizing thousands of state-owned enterprises, including all five state-owned commercial banks.<ref name=cp/>▼
 
According to the [[World Bank]], Vietnam has been a development success story. Its economic reforms since the beginning of [[Đổi Mới]] in 1986 have helped to change Vietnam from being one of the world’s poorest nations to a [[Middle-income country|middle-income economy]] in one generation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Overview |url=https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/vietnam/overview |website=World Bank |language=en}}</ref>
▲Although Vietnam's economy, which continues to expand at an annual rate in excess of 7 percent, is one of the fastest-growing in the world, the economy is growing from an extremely low base, reflecting the crippling effect of the Second Indochina War (1954–75) and repressive economic measures introduced in its aftermath. Whether rapid economic growth is sustainable is open to debate.<ref name=vnturmoil>Napier, Nancy K.; Vuong, Quan Hoang. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0985530588/ What we see, why we worry, why we hope: Vietnam going forward.] Boise, ID: [[Boise State University CCI Press]], October 2013. {{ISBN|978-0985530587}}.</ref> The government may not be able to follow through with plans to scale back trade restrictions and reform state-owned enterprises. Reducing trade restrictions and improving transparency are keys to gaining full membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO), as hoped by mid-2006. The government plans to reform the state-owned sector by partially privatizing thousands of state-owned enterprises, including all five state-owned commercial banks.<ref name=cp/>
 
==GDP by year==
This chart shows the [[GDP]] of Vietnam at constant prices (Source: [https://web.archive.org/web/20100611172746/http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/01/data/dbcselm.cfm?G=2001 IMF] [https://datacommons.org/place/country/VNM/?mprop=amount&popt=EconomicActivity&cpv=activitySource,GrossDomesticProduction&hl=en Datacommons])
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year
!GDP<br /> (constant prices, in billions of New Dong)
|-
|1980
Line 202 ⟶ 182:
|2005
|389,244
|-
|2010
|147.2 billion USD
|-
|2015
|239.3 billion USD
|-
|2020
|346.6 billion USD
|-
|2021
|366.1 billion USD
|}
 
Line 213 ⟶ 205:
 
==Sources==
* {{cite book|title=The Tongking Gulf Through History|year=2011|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0812243369|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7mlKjn3FfoMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false|edition=illustrated|accessdateaccess-date=4 January 2013|editor1-first=Nola|editor1-last=Cooke|editor2-first=Tana|editor2-last=Li|editor3-first=James|editor3-last=Anderson}}
* {{cite book|last=Lary|first=Diana|title=The Chinese State at the Borders|year=2007|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=978-0774813334|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pFzhWyoYG_wC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false|edition=illustrated|editor=Diana Lary|accessdateaccess-date=4 January 2013|page=}}
* {{cite book|last=Tsai|first=Shih-Shan Henry|title=The Eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty (Ming Tai Huan Kuan)|year=1996|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=0791426874|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ka6jNJcX_ygC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false|edition=illustrated|accessdateaccess-date=5 January 2013}}
* {{citation | last = Wade | first = Geoff | title = Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource | url = http://www.epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/ | publisher = Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore | year = 2005 | accessdateaccess-date = 2012-11-06}}
 
{{Economic history}}
{{Asia in topic|Economic history of}}
 
[[Category:Economic history of Vietnam|Vietnam ]]
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