Vietnam

G

Culture

The cultural life of Vietnam was strongly flavoured by that of China until French domination in the 19th century. At that time the traditional culture began to acquire an overlay of Western characteristics. After reunification, the government expressed its desire to rid Vietnamese life of Occidental influences, but this policy has since been eased.

Two major museums of Vietnamese culture have been established, in Hanoi in 1958 and in Ho Chi Minh City in 1977. The National Library was established in Hanoi in 1919; a counterpart was founded in Ho Chi Minh City in 1976.

IV

Economy

Vietnam’s modern economy evolved under the burden of military actions and political upheavals. After partition in 1954, the nations of North Vietnam and South Vietnam each had developed their own economic structure, reflecting different economic systems with different resources and different trading partners. The North operated under a highly centralized command economy, whereas the South maintained a free market economy. With the reunification of Vietnam in 1976 came the introduction of North Vietnam’s centrally planned economy into the South, leading to famine and hyperinflation across the country by the 1980s. A continuing economic reform programme, begun in 1986 and known as doi moi (Vietnamese, “renovation”), encouraged competition, open markets, and foreign investment, with the aim of restoring the country’s prosperity and emulating the “Tiger Cub” high-growth economies of Asia. A 1990 programme called for a doubling of per capita income, a 50 per cent increase in the rice crop, and a fivefold increase in the value of exports by the year 2000. Between 1991 and 1993 some 3,000 loss-making state-run businesses were closed. In 2004 Vietnam had an estimated annual gross national product of US$44,631 million (World Bank figure), equivalent to US$700 per capita. The 2001 budget comprised revenue of US$6,710 million and expenditure of US$7,958 million.

A

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

The leading sector of the Vietnamese economy is agriculture, employing 71 per cent of the workforce in 1995; government control of the agricultural economy was abandoned in 1989. The country’s principal crops in 2006 (with output in tonnes) included rice, the staple food, 35.8 million (Vietnam is the world’s third-largest rice exporter, behind Thailand and the United States); sugar cane, 15.7 million; cassava, 7.71 million; and sweet potatoes, 1 million. Cash crops include coffee, 853,500; soya beans, 258,200; natural rubber, 546,100; and tea, 142,300. Livestock in 2006 included 26.9 million pigs, 6.51 million cattle, and 215 million chickens.

Although forests cover about 39 per cent of Vietnam’s total land area (a 13 per cent reduction since the 1940s), the growth of commercial forestry has been hindered by a lack of transport facilities, as well as by the mixture of different species of trees, making it uneconomical to harvest a single species. Teak and bamboo are predominant. Most of the 30.8 million cu m (1.09 billion cu ft) of roundwood harvested in 2006 was used for fuel; timber exports were prohibited in 1992 because of deforestation.

Vietnam’s extensive coastline and numerous streams are rich fishing sites. Most fish are taken from the South China Sea. Some fish-farming has been undertaken in flooded areas inland. About 3.40 million tonnes of fish, crabs, shrimps, and prawns, and shellfish were caught in 2005.

B

Mining

Most mining activities are confined to the north-west, where anthracite coal, phosphate rock, copper, tin, zinc, iron antimony, and chromium are extracted. Coal and apatite, a phosphate rock, are extensively mined: production in 2003 was 16 million tonnes of coal and 225,000 tonnes of phosphate rock. In addition, large petroleum and natural gas deposits lie offshore. Petroleum has been extracted since 1975 and production, mostly by a state-owned company, has been increasing: 129 million barrels of crude oil were produced in 2004. The areas holding all of the petroleum and natural gas reserves are also claimed by China.

C

Manufacturing

The major Vietnamese manufacturing plants, concentrated in the north, have been almost totally restored, but output has not reached planned levels. Important industries include paper, cement, textiles, food products, chemicals, and fertilizers. Output of principal products in 1993 included 4.8 million tonnes of cement and 225 million metres of textile fabrics.