Vietnam overview

Photo credit

Carol Douglas

10:56pm Monday 15 March

Viet Nam has made great progress since it engaged in 1987 on a course of market reform known as doi moi, or renovation. The reforms achieved impressive results, including growth rates that for a time were amongst the highest in Asia and the reduction of poverty from more than 70% of the population to 35%. Today Viet Nam's growth rates remain among the highest in the region (second only to China). Its membership of ASEAN in 1995 and of APEC in 1998 have done much to restore Viet Nam's international credibility, but are also serving to accelerate the process of regional economic integration with all the difficult restructuring this involves.

Viet Nam is making the transition from a centrally controlled command economy to one which is more outward looking, more efficient, and more competitive. Viet Nam's population and resource base is considerable.

Map of Vietnam and surrounding region with ASEAN neighbours marked

Key demographics

Official Name	Socialist Republic of Viet Nam
Land Area	330,000 sq kilometres
Population	85.26 million (2008 estimate)
Capital City	Ha Noi
Religion	Predominantly Buddhist (80-85%) and Catholic (10%)
Language	Vietnamese
Currency	Vietnamese Dong

Key statistics

GDP	US$70.94 billion
GDP per capita	US$2,589 (PPP estimate 2007)
Total exports	US$48.39 billion
Total imports	US$60.83 billion
Total NZ exports to Vietnam	NZ$340.9 million (2007-8)
Total NZ imports from Vietnam	NZ$151.2 million (2007-8)

Sources of data: IMF (GDP data), World Bank (export/imports) and Statistics New Zealand (NZ exports/imports).