Unequal Benefits of Growth in Viet Nam

Abstract

The economy of Viet Nam, stimulated by a set of reforms popularly called doi moi (renewal), grew at the impressive annual rate of 7.3 percent from 1990 to 1999. Contemporaneously, poverty incidence fell dramatically from 75 percent in the mid-1980s to 58 percent in 1993 and 37 percent in 1998.1 Access to primary health care and basic education became almost universal by 1998. Infant mortality rate fell from 36 per 1,000 live births in 1993 to 27 in 1998. Enrollment rates in lower secondary schools also increased from 42 percent in 1992-1993 to 61 percent in 1997-1998. These advances in social indicators are impressive by international standards.