the background information on Vietnam. Section 3 will discuss on the theoretical framework of Vietnam’s transition process. Section 4 will evaluate Vietnam’s economic development plans up till 1990. Section 5 will discuss the challenges that Vietnam would encounter in its future economic development. Section 6 provides concluding remarks. 2. Background Information on VietnamTo better understand Vietnam’s economic transition, we need to examine its historical past. The 17th parallel at the 1954 Geneva Conference divided Vietnam into two parts: North and South Vietnam. The North, called Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), was under the leadership of the Vietnamese Communist Party while the South, called Republic of Vietnam (RVN) was a puppet state under Western control. Civil war ensued. Moreover, the economies of the two evolved in different directions with the North following a Stalinist-Maoist model to construct socialism while the South set on the capitalist path under Western influence . On 2nd July 1976, the North and South were reunified and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) came into existence. Following the completion of the liberation of South Vietnam, the country entered an era of economic recovery and development with the communist party set upon to impose its neo-Stalin model on the South and it led to severe economic problems. 3. Theoretical Framework of Vietnam’s Transition Process Vietnam’s overall reform from 1970 till the present can be divided into two distinct periods (Figure 1 below), each with its objectives, forces and mechanisms driving the process . The first period known as hard reform is between 1976, after the reunification, up to 1986. The central authorities maintain its tough stance against private sector and continue to control markets to defend its neo-Stalin economic model. However, reforms began to take places from the grass-roots level (e.g cooperatives and s...
