Structural Adjustment and Macroeconomic Reform in Vietnam

Abstract

The economic reforms introduced in Vietnam after 1989 have been remarkably successful. Indeed of the 28 countries currently going through the transition from central planning to a more market-oriented regime, only China compares favourably with Vietnam.¹ All of the other 26 countries have performed much worse than Vietnam, including Poland, perhaps the most promising of this large residual group. Yet Vietnam’s story is poorly understood and is not well known outside a small circle of specialists; it deserves to be told. In this essay we focus on the management of structural adjustment in Vietnam, concentrating on the macroeconomic reforms.