Military
The Vietnam People's Armed Forces consists of the Vietnam People's Army (VPA), the Vietnam People's Public Security and the Vietnam Self-Defence Militia. The VPA is the official name for the active military services of Vietnam, and is subdivided into the Vietnam People's Ground Forces, the Vietnam People's Navy, the Vietnam People's Air Force, the Vietnam Border Guard and the Vietnam Coast Guard. The VPA has an active manpower of around 450,000, but its total strength, including paramilitary forces, may be as high as 5,000,000.[266] In 2015, Vietnam's military expenditure totalled approximately US$4.4 billion, equivalent to around 8% of its total government spending.[267] Joint military exercises and war games have been held with Brunei,[268] India,[269] Japan,[270] Laos,[271] Russia,[272] Singapore[268] and the US.[273] In 2017, Vietnam signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.[274][275]
Human rights and sociopolitical issues
Vietnam's pre-1986 communist system has been described either as totalitarian[276][277] or not totalitarian but autocratic.[278] Since 1986, Vietnam retreated from totalitarianism to authoritarianism, with the freedom of assembly, association, expression, press and religion as well as civil society activism still tightly restricted.[276][277] Under the current constitution, the CPV is the only party allowed to rule, the operation of all other political parties being outlawed. Other human rights issues concern freedom of association, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of the press. In 2009, Vietnamese lawyer Lê Công Định was arrested and charged with the capital crime of subversion; several of his associates were also arrested.[279][280] Amnesty International described him and his arrested associates as prisoners of conscience.[279] Vietnam has also suffered from human trafficking and related issues.[281][282][283]
Economy
| Share of world GDP (PPP)[12] | |
|---|---|
| Year | Share |
| 1980 | 0.21% |
| 1990 | 0.28% |
| 2000 | 0.39% |
| 2010 | 0.52% |
| 2020 | 0.80% |
Throughout the history of Vietnam, its economy has been based largely on agriculture—primarily wet rice cultivation.[284] Bauxite, an important material in the production of aluminium, is mined in central Vietnam.[285] Since reunification, the country's economy is shaped primarily by the CPV through Five Year Plans decided upon at the plenary sessions of the Central Committee and national congresses.[286] The collectivisation of farms, factories, and capital goods was carried out as part of the establishment of central planning, with millions of people working for state enterprises. Under strict state control, Vietnam's economy continued to be plagued by inefficiency, corruption in state-owned enterprises, poor quality and underproduction.[287][288] With the decline in economic aid from its main trading partner, the Soviet Union, following the erosion of the Eastern bloc in the late 1980s, and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as the negative impacts of the post-war trade embargo imposed by the United States,[289][290] Vietnam began to liberalise its trade by devaluing its exchange rate to increase exports and embarked on a policy of economic development.[291]
In 1986, the Sixth National Congress of the CPV introduced socialist-oriented market economic reforms as part of the Đổi Mới reform programme. Private ownership began to be encouraged in industry, commerce and agriculture and state enterprises were restructured to operate under market constraints.[292][293] This led to the five-year economic plans being replaced by the socialist-oriented market mechanism.[294] As a result of these reforms, Vietnam achieved approximately 8% annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth between 1990 and 1997.[295][296] The United States ended its economic embargo against Vietnam in early 1994.[297] Although the 1997 Asian financial crisis caused an economic slowdown to 4–5% growth per year, its economy began to recover in 1999,[292] and grew at around 7% per year from 2000 to 2005, one of the fastest in the world.[298][299] On 11 January 2007, Vietnam became the 150th member of the WTO (World Trade Organization).[300] According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO), growth remained strong despite the late-2000s global recession, holding at 6.8% in 2010. Vietnam's year-on-year inflation rate reached 11.8% in December 2010 and the currency, the Vietnamese đồng, was devalued three times.[301][302]
Deep poverty, defined as the percentage of the population living on less than $1 per day, has declined significantly in Vietnam and the relative poverty rate is now less than that of China, India and the Philippines.[303] This decline can be attributed to equitable economic policies aimed at improving living standards and preventing the rise of inequality.[304] These policies have included egalitarian land distribution during the initial stages of the Đổi Mới programme, investment in poorer remote areas, and subsidising of education and healthcare.[305][306] Since the early 2000s, Vietnam has applied sequenced trade liberalisation, a two-track approach opening some sectors of the economy to international markets.[304][307] Manufacturing, information technology and high-tech industries now form a large and fast-growing part of the national economy. Although Vietnam is a relative newcomer to the oil industry, it is the third-largest oil producer in Southeast Asia with a total 2011 output of 318,000 barrels per day (50,600 m3/d).[308] In 2010, Vietnam was ranked as the eighth-largest crude petroleum producer in the Asia and Pacific region.[309] The US bought the biggest share of Vietnam's exports,[310] while goods from China were the most popular Vietnamese import.[311]
Based on findings by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2022, the unemployment rate in Vietnam was 2.3%, the nominal GDP US$406.452 billion, and a nominal GDP per capita $4,086.[12][312] Besides the primary sector economy, tourism has contributed significantly to Vietnam's economic growth with 7.94 million foreign visitors recorded in 2015.[313]