What is the poverty rate in Vietnam?
Poverty in Vietnam
Based on a report from the Asian Development Bank, Vietnam has a total population of 91.70 million as of 2015, about one million people more compared to the previous year. 8.4% of the population lived below the national poverty line. There were 76.2% of the population aged 15 years and above who were employed in 2013.
Vietnam and the World Bank
In an effort to support the inclusive reforms in Vietnam and foster the country's shift from a centrally planned economy to market-based economy, the 25-year partnership of World Bank and Vietnam has witnessed over 270 projects or advisory and analytic activities conducted through the collaboration of International Development Association (IDA), International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which covered the areas of poverty reduction, education, rural and urban services, infrastructure, new energy and environmental protection and so on. In recent years, the World Bank and Vietnam's Government have made joint efforts to focus on “strengthening competitiveness, improving sustainability, increasing opportunity” to gain greater progress for Vietnam as a middle-income country. At the moment, the existing net commitment from World Bank to Vietnam is about US$9.5 billion. For the future engagement in Vietnam, “inclusive growth, investment in people, environmental sustainability and good governance”, as illustrated in the new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for 2018-2022, would be the priorities of WBG.
War on Poverty
There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor –both black and white – through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such. Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home.
Lê Duẩn
After the war, per-capita income stood at US$101; it decreased to $91 in 1980 and then increased to $99 by 1982, according to United Nations figures. Phạm Văn Đồng admitted that per-capita income "had not increased compared to what it was ten years ago". Physical health declined and malnutrition increased under Lê Duẩn, according to the Ministry of Health. According to the "International Herald Tribune", an estimated 6,000,000 Vietnamese were suffering from malnutrition, leading the government to request aid from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Lê Duẩn's policies led to an abrupt decline in the standard of living; monthly per capita income in the North declined from $82 in 1976 to $58 in 1980.
Poverty and NGOs in Cambodia
The rural citizens are the people who have the least access to education, health and other public services because of poor infrastructures and lack of government investment in areas where it matters most. In 2007, education expenditure only accounted for 1.6% of Cambodia’s total GDP putting it amongst the ranks of other poorer nations. As a result, only 78% of adults above the age of 15 are literate.
Phú Thọ Province
Phú Thọ is one of the poorest areas of Vietnam; the poorest households earn below $6 (USD) per person per month. As of 1997, the provincial economy was roughly evenly split at 33% of the workforce working in agriculture, industry and in services respectively. In the period during 1990-1995, the annual increase rate in income 72%. The city of Việt Trì (population 181,123 (2009)) is the headquarters of many companies and groups active in the province and contains many of the industrial firms and service industries.
Economy of the Republic of Vietnam
Since 1975, the economy of Vietnam has been plagued by enormous difficulties in production, imbalances in supply and demand, inefficiencies in distribution and circulation, soaring inflation rates, and rising debt problems. Vietnam is one of the few countries in modern history to experience a sharp economic deterioration in a postwar reconstruction period. Its peacetime economy is one of the poorest in the world and has shown a negative to very slow growth in total national output as well as in agricultural and industrial production. Vietnam's gross domestic product (GDP) in 1984 was valued at US$18.1 billion with a per capita income estimated to be between US$200 and US$300 per year. Reasons for this mediocre economic performance have included severe climatic conditions that afflicted agricultural crops, bureaucratic mismanagement, elimination of private ownership, extinction of entrepreneurial classes in the South, and military occupation of Cambodia (which resulted in a cutoff of much-needed international aid for reconstruction).
Coffee production in Vietnam
This pattern saw the production of coffee in Vietnam at 29.3 million bags in 2017, nearly 600,000 bags lower than the USDA estimate for that year, due to losses caused by late rain. The USDA Foreign Agriculture Service has correctly predicted the increase in production in 2018, as shown in a Bloomberg report and forecasted a further increase in 2019 due to better land management, higher replanting rates, more efficient storage and significant private sector involvement. According to Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, Vietnam expects this growth in 2018 to beat the Government's target of 6.7%, matching 2017's economic growth of 6.8%. However, the extent of which the Government promotes growth at the extent of social inequalities and environmental degradation should also be looked at.
Prostitution in Vietnam
A survey of 150 prostitutes by the Vietnamese government-run "Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs" found that 44 percent of prostitutes had suffered violence at the hands of clients. Just under a half did not report the crimes to the authorities. The "Vietnam Network of Sex Workers" have called for decriminalization to make sex work safer. Kimberly Kay Hoang, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, who conducted a 2011 study of prostitutes in Ho Chi Minh City is quoted as saying "Legalising prostitution would also reduce violence and sex crimes such as rape and sexual violence. Prostitutes would feel safe calling the police to report instances of violence and abuse by clients, traffickers, and pimps to law enforcement officials." Mr Le Duc Hien, deputy director of a government department tasked with fighting social evils under the labor ministry, crystallized this by telling the media: "It would be a strategic mistake to tap prostitution as an industry to boost tourism revenues. What would happen if we recognize sex work as a profession but fail to manage it later on?"
Environmental issues in Vietnam
The people of Vietnam have shown significant growth in development through economic reform plans that were initiated in 1986, known as Doi Moi. The business and agricultural reforms successfully created more than 30,000 private businesses, and poverty declined from about 50 percent to 29 percent of the population from the early 1990s to 2005. 
However, reports have shown that due to the significant population growth as a result, protected areas within the environmental sector are often overlooked when nearby land is developed, which creates conflict between area conservation plans versus land development and planning.
Vietnam
On 2 July 1976, North and South Vietnam were merged to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The war left Vietnam devastated, with the total death toll standing at between 966,000 and 3.8 million. In the aftermath of the war, under Lê Duẩn's administration, there were no mass executions of South Vietnamese who had collaborated with the US and the defunct South Vietnamese government, confounding Western fears. However, up to 300,000 South Vietnamese were sent to re-education camps, where many endured torture, starvation and disease while being forced to perform hard labour. The government embarked on a mass campaign of collectivisation of farms and factories. In 1978, as a response towards the Khmer Rouge who had been invading and massacring Vietnamese residents in the border villages in the districts of An Giang and Kiên Giang, the Vietnamese military invaded Cambodia and removed them from power after overtaking Phnom Penh. The intervention was a success, resulting in the establishment of a new pro-Vietnam socialist government, the People's Republic of Kampuchea which ruled until 1989. This action however worsened relations with China, who had been supporting the Khmer Rouge where they later launched a brief incursion into northern Vietnam in 1979 and causing Vietnam to rely even more heavily on Soviet economic and military aid with the mistrust towards the Chinese government began to escalate.
At the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in December 1986, reformist politicians replaced the "old guard" government with new leadership. The reformers were led by 71-year-old Nguyễn Văn Linh, who became the party's new general secretary. Linh and the reformers implemented a series of free-market reforms known as ("Renovation") which carefully managed the transition from a planned economy to a "socialist-oriented market economy". Though the authority of the state remained unchallenged under "Đổi Mới", the government encouraged private ownership of farms and factories, economic deregulation and foreign investment, while maintaining control over strategic industries. The Vietnamese economy subsequently achieved strong growth in agricultural and industrial production, construction, exports and foreign investment despite through these reforms also have caused a rise in income inequality and gender disparities.
Poverty in Vietnam
As in many other developing countries, hunger and poverty in Vietnam has existed for a significant amount of time. Until the 1980s, most of the Vietnamese population still lived under the poverty line. However, thanks to the political and economic reform in 1986 and the government's commitment, the status of poverty and hunger in Vietnam has been significantly improved. From one of the poorest countries in the World with per capita income below US$100 per year, Vietnam is now a lower-middle income country with per capita income of US$1,910 by the end of 2013. Thereby, the poverty rate decreases gradually from 58 percent in 1993 to 28.9 percent in 2002, 14.5 percent in 2008 and 12 percent in 2011. About 28 million people are estimated to have been lifted out of poverty over approximately two decades. The 2014 Global Hunger Index (GHI) Report ranked Vietnam 15th amongst 81 nations suffering from hunger, with a GHI of 7.5 compared with 27.7 in 1990 (country with extremely alarming (GHI ≥ 30), alarming (GHI between 20.0 and 29.9) or serious (GHI between 10.0 and 19.9) hunger situation. Achievements in poverty reduction and hunger eradication have been highly appreciated by the international community and viewed overall as successful in furthering economic development. However, Vietnam still has many tasks ahead in fighting against poverty and hunger, particularly for vulnerable groups such as ethnic minorities, and the disabled.
Crime in Vietnam
The Vietnamese government is making an effort to curb corruption in the country. A handful of corrupt individuals, ranging from law enforcers to politicians, have been arrested. The police force in Vietnam is known to go overboard and there have been reports of the police assaulting unarmed individuals. In July 23, while in detainment for a small offense (helmetless driving of motorcycle), 21-year-old Nguyen Van Khuong ultimately lost his life when officers reportedly physically attacked him. The misuse of ferocity has raised concerns from the Human Rights Watch.
Economy of Vietnam
In 1986, Vietnam launched a political and economic renewal campaign ("Đổi Mới") that introduced reforms to facilitate the transition from a centralized economy to a "socialist-oriented market economy". "Đổi Mới" combined government planning with free-market incentives and encouraged the establishment of private businesses and foreign investment, including foreign-owned enterprises. Furthermore, the Vietnam government stressed the necessity to lower birth rates when developing the economic and social rights of the population by implementing a policy that restricted the number of children per household to two, called the two-child policy. By the late 1990s, the success of the business and agricultural reforms ushered in under "Đổi Mới" was evident. More than 30,000 private businesses had been created, the economy was growing at an annual rate of more than 7%, and poverty was nearly halved.
Economic history of Vietnam
Government control of the economy and a nonconvertible currency have protected Vietnam from what could have been a more severe impact resulting from the East Asian financial crisis in 1997. Nonetheless, the crisis, coupled with the loss of momentum as the first round of economic reforms ran its course, has exposed serious structural inefficiencies in Vietnam's economy. Vietnam's economic stance following the East Asian recession has been a cautious one, emphasizing macroeconomic stability rather than growth. While the country has shifted toward a more market-oriented economy, the Vietnamese government still continues to hold a tight rein over major sectors of the economy, such as the banking system, state-owned enterprises, and areas of foreign trade. GDP growth fell to 6% in 1998 and 5% in 1999.
Corruption in Vietnam
A survey of businesses in various sectors by Maruichi and Abe showed that companies can expect anywhere between USD50 to USD500 to obtain required permits, licenses and business registration. Coffey postulates that this corruption erodes the positive consequences of Vietnam’s economic growth and development. The Vietnamese Government had implemented an anti-corruption law in 2005, and established the Office of the Central Steering Committee for Anti-Corruption in 2006 as part of their efforts to combat corruption. Martini notes that while the law and legal framework was lauded as one of the best in Asia to combat corruption, it was also reported that the effects of the Anti-Corruption efforts have been limited due to the weak enforcement of laws and lack of information regarding the work of Anti-Corruption agencies. It is observed that these definitions, frameworks and benchmarks are from western or western-sponsored sources and organizations. Martini’s work was part of a report by Transparency International, where she worked at the time of this report. Hence, her statements in the report are likely bound to the constraints put upon her by the organization that has its own set definition.
Vietnam and the World Bank
By far, the International Development Association (IDA) has provided credits and grants totaling up to about US$20.6 billion to Vietnam, which supported 169 projects covering various sectors such as public administration, water supply, sanitation and waste management, health, social protection, agriculture, education and transportation. Of the 169 projects, 43 projects are active now and 7 projects were dropped. In 2018, a new project called “Dynamic City Integrated Development” was approved to further improve urban infrastructure and urban management. For the implementation and results of IDA portfolio in Vietnam in the past decade, the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG)’s assessment has been relatively high with most project ratings being moderately satisfactory or better. But due to more complicated project designs, deficient performance evaluation and postponement of remedy measures, a declining tendency for outcome ratings was seen in more recent years.
History of Vietnam since 1945
Compounding all this was the complete failure of the Five-Year Plan adopted in 1976, as Vietnam remained one of the world's poorest countries with a per-capita GDP of less than US$300 and almost totally dependent on Soviet aid, which reached as much as US$3 billion a year by 1982. Moscow faced mounting pressure from its Warsaw Pact allies to reduce outlays to Vietnam. Soviet-Vietnamese relations were also harmed by the former's wishes to have greater involvement in Vietnam's economic development and increased access to military facilities. In 1982, the VCP held its 5th National Congress in which General Secretary Lê Duẩn stated that "The Party wishes sternly to criticize itself." and "Our nation's manifold difficulties, while aggravated by outside circumstances that could not be helped, are nonetheless worsened by the various errors and shortcoming of officials." Le also expressed his dismay at the average age of the party leadership, noting that there was only one person on the Central Committee under 60.
Hà Tĩnh Province
Hà Tĩnh is among the poorest provinces of Vietnam with a GDP in 2008 of US$420 per person. The poverty can be attributed to the harsh natural conditions with severe coldness in winter and extreme heat in summer, floods and storms every autumn and unfavorable soil and natural resources. A badly-operated district and provincial government is also a hurdle to prosperity. Agriculture, forestry and fishery takes up 35.5 percent of total GDP and the province's GDP accounts for 0.7 percent of Vietnam's GDP. Hà Tĩnh takes slow steps in economic reforms though better signs in recent time are incentive. Vung Ang harbour with some plants, factories and thermal power station is becoming the most active economic hub. Vietnam Steel operates an iron mine in Thach Khe District, with reserves of 544 million tonnes of iron one of the largest mines in southeast Asia.
A US$10 billion iron and steel plant is being built in Vung Ang. (see Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation.) The steel plant is part of an industrial park, which is estimated to cost more than US$20 billion. When finished in 2020, the industrial park will have a port, a 2,100-MW power plant and a steel plant with six blast furnaces. In 2016, the Formosa Steel plant was accused to release untreated waste water with heavy metals and other toxins into nearby sea, which may link to the killing of millions of fish and endangering the lives of millions of humans through subsequent poisoning.
Education in Vietnam
The entire higher education system is facing several crises, such as outdated curricula, a lecturer-centered method of teaching and learning, a lack of linkage between teaching and research activities, and a large discord between theory and practical training that leads to a large number of graduates being unable to find a job, while skills shortages drive inflation to double-digit levels. Vietnamese students have a lack of knowledge despite being taught a lot due to the fact that the main purpose of studying hard is to pass exams. According to the survey on graduate employment in 2009-2010 conducted by Center for Policy Studies and Analysis- University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, among 3000 respondents, 26.2% are still unemployed with the majority unable to find a job. Among those employed, 61% said they lacked sufficient working skill, 42% lacked experience and 32% cited insecure professional expertise.
Healthcare in Vietnam
In June 2011, the United Nations Population Fund released a report on The State of the World's Midwifery. It contained new data on the midwifery workforce and policies relating to newborn and maternal mortality for 59 countries. The 2015 maternal mortality rate per 1,000,000 births for Vietnam is 567. This is compared with 64.3 in 2008 and 157.9 in 1990. The under-5 mortality rate, per 1,000 births, is 24, and the neonatal mortality as a percentage of under-5's mortality is 52. The aim of this report is to highlight ways in which the Millennium Development Goals can be achieved, particularly Goal 4 – Reduce child mortality and Goal 5 – improve maternal death. In Vietnam the number of midwives per 1,000 live births is unavailable and the lifetime risk of death for pregnant women 1 in 850.
Poverty and NGOs in Cambodia
Rampant corruption amongst the political elites and government bureaucrats is a key factor that has been hindering improvements in poverty levels. In 2010, Cambodia was ranked 154th out of 178 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) with a given score of 2.1 out of 10 indicating just how perverse corruption is at every level of the Cambodian society. Yet, this is already considered an improvement from previous years. This is a deterrent for foreign investments and foreign aids that are very much needed for Cambodia to sustain its economic growth and alleviate the poor out of poverty.
Crime in Vietnam
Petty crime, which includes pick-pocketing and snatch theft, is a problem in Vietnam. Traveling alone in remote areas after dark is of risk especially to foreigners. Violent crime is a growing issue; most cases of it are reported in the more developed areas of the country, such as Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi. Scams are common in the country, and foreign travellers have reported attempts at sexual assault on fake motorcycle taxis ("xe ôm") passed off as real ones. . Counterfeit and unauthorized merchandise can be easily found in many areas of Vietnam.
Poverty in Cambodia
In order to estimate the poverty levels in Cambodia, the government carried out its first large-scale national survey to ascertain the levels of povertyon a household level. The study, which was financed by the World Bank, took place in the period between 1993 and 1994. The findings of the study revealed that the poverty lines were about 1,100 Riels per person per day in rural areas, about 1,300 Riels per person per day in urban areas, and about 1,600 Riels per person in a day in Phnom Penh. The level of poverty in rural areas was estimated at about 45 percent, which was four times that of the capital city. The outcome of the study made it possible for the country to come up with the First Socioeconomic Development Plan that was to run from 1996 to 2000.
Social issues in Vietnam
Child poverty declined from 65.2% in the 1993 to 26.7% in 2004. The Survey on Household Living Standards data set from 2008 showed that 1 in 3 children in Vietnam is poor. Despite the drop, child poverty remains much higher than the national poverty rate. Many children lack access to the basic necessities of food, water, education and sanitation. This is especially so in rural areas.
Education in Cambodia
Given that the poverty line in the rural areas of Cambodia is set at US$0.25 per person per daily consumption, 53.7% of the population in Siem Reaps is living below the poverty line. Due to poverty, children in Cambodia are forced to give up education to work and supplement the family’s income, see Child labour in Cambodia. The opportunity cost of sending their children to school are very high in some families, making it almost impossible for the children to receive education. Based on the data from International Labour Organization, close to 20% of children ages 5–9 are employed. The figures then rise to 47% for children between ages 10–14 and 34% for ages 15–17. Among the number of working children of ages 5 to 17, only 45% have the chance to attend school.
Economy of Vietnam
According to a forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers in February 2017, Vietnam may be the fastest-growing of the world's economies, with a potential annual GDP growth rate of about 5.1%, which would make its economy the 20th-largest in the world by 2050. Vietnam has also been named among the Next Eleven and CIVETS countries. Despite economic achievement following Doi Moi, there exist issues that cause many analysts and researchers to remain worried about the economic slowdown in the country in recent years.
Vietnam and the World Bank
Since 1993, the World Bank Group (WBG) has established a partnership with the Southeast Asian country of Vietnam, which was once one of the least developed countries in the world. Playing a role in facilitating the economic and political reform of Doi Moi that started in 1986 throughout Vietnam, the World Bank (WB) has cooperated with Vietnam's Government and committed a total of US$24 billion of loans, credits and grants to Vietnam as of August 2018, as a way to help Vietnam change the situation of poverty and make progress towards prosperity. The country stepped into a lower middle-income country in 2009. With a GDP growth rate of about 7.1% in the first half year of 2018, Vietnam keeps showing a strong development momentum among the economies in Southeast Asia.
Women in Vietnam
The average wage in the country of Vietnam was US$1,540 in 2012. In 2011, studies showed "that women earn 13% less than men." The 2012 survey on workers’ salaries carried out by the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) in enterprises nationwide revealed that female workers’ salaries are only 70-80% of their male colleagues’. The global average gender pay gap is hovering around seventeen percent
According to Nguyen Kim Lan, ILO national project coordinator, the only 2 occupational fields where pay is equal is in logistics, and household care. One reason for the disparity is that companies view women as wanting to stay at home and perform more gender role duties .More than seventy percent of laborers in Vietnam are women. The International Labour Organizations recently stated that the gender pay gap has started to increase, according to the ILO Global Wage Report during the 2012-13 period, compared to 1999-2007. A two percent increase in the gap was recorded in Vietnam in the period.
United States assistance to Vietnam
Other sizeable assistance items include demining activities and programs assisting Vietnam's economic reform efforts. This latter group of programs has been designed to help the Vietnamese government implement the economic liberalization reforms it committed to in the 2000 U.S.-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement and
will likely be required to undertake as part of its desire to join the World Trade Organization (WTO).2 Hanoi has set a goal of attaining WTO membership by the end of 2005. The U.S. also funds educational exchanges with Vietnam, principally
the Vietnam Fulbright program, which receives more funding (typically $4 million annually) than any other Fulbright program in the world. These programs are not included in Table 1 because they are not funded through the foreign policy budget and confer benefits to both the U.S. and Vietnam. Additionally, the United States administers the Vietnam Education Foundation, which was established by Congress in 2000 to provide $5 million annually for scholarships and educational exchanges. Funds for the foundation are recycled from the Vietnamese government's repayments of the wartime debts South Vietnam owed the United States. Total annual funding for educational exchanges, including the Fulbright and Vietnam Education Foundation programs, has been in the $9–$11 million range since FY2003.
Operation Passage to Freedom
Apart from anti-communist campaigning, economics was another factor in moving south. The US gave handouts of US$89 ($ as of 2022) for each refugee who moved; the per capita income in Vietnam at the time was only $85 per year ($ per year as of 2022). Others have pointed to natural geographic factors unrelated to and uncontrollable by political regimes. They point to the fact that the land in the south was seen as being more productive, and memories of the Great Vietnamese Famine of 1945, which killed millions in the north, as reasons independent of politics that motivated migrants. In the mid-1950s, northern Vietnam again suffered food shortages, and some migrants have cited food security as motive for relocation. Adding to this was a general perception that Saigon was a more modern city with more economic vibrancy. Earlier in the 20th century, there had also been instances of campaigns by Catholics to encourage southerly migration to exploit underdeveloped land in the south, so it was not a new concept for them.
Corruption in Vietnam
Other sources such as Coffey make references to Vietnam’s ranking on the Corruption Perception Index, where in 2013, it ranked 116 out of 177 countries. The more recent 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International ranked Vietnam at 107 out of 180 countries. While it has improved over the years since the Doi Moi reforms, corrupt practices remain evident in the business landscape. Corruption in Vietnam occurs at various levels of government, and even within private organisations. Segon & Booth noted that at least 30% of public and civil servants have indicated that they are willing to take a bribe. The work by Segon and Booth was centered around managerial perspectives of expatriate managers who have been working in Vietnam for a few years. Much of the data they gathered from these exchanges revolved around the corrupt practices that were observed within Vietnamese companies and the public sector. Dr Segon is an Associate Professor with the CQ University in Australia, who was working as an Ethics and CSR specialist for a western business consultancy at the time this article was published, thus his work appears centered around a western perspective on the practices the west defines as corrupt, as one may expect from a business consultant. This business/profit centered approach was also adopted by Coffey, an international consultancy that counts the UK Department of International Development among its clients, which also commissioned the study on the state of corruption in Vietnam as cited in this entry.
IFAD Vietnam
The starting point for IFAD’s country programme for 2008-2012 was the growing disparity between rural and urban areas, particularly the plight of ethnic minorities (EM) in upland areas. The Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) identified IFAD’s comparative advantage in Vietnam as being the development of innovative methods for linking poverty reduction with market-oriented agricultural and rural development; forming strong partnerships with provinces; and promoting government ownership. In this COSOP period, IFAD interventions will promote the adoption of climate change mitigation and adaptation measures, as appropriate.
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City is the economic center of Vietnam and accounts for a large proportion of the economy of Vietnam. Although the city takes up just 0.6% of the country's land area, it contains 8.34% of the population of Vietnam, 20.2% of its GDP, 27.9% of industrial output and 34.9% of the FDI projects in the country in 2005. In 2005, the city had 4,344,000 labourers, of whom 130,000 are over the labour age norm (in Vietnam, 60 for male and 55 for female workers). In 2009, GDP per capita reached $2,800, compared to the country's average level of $1,042.
Móng Cái
Móng Cái (, literally "thumbnail" because of its geography) is a city of Quảng Ninh Province in northern Vietnam. Located on China–Vietnam border, it sits on the southern bank of Beilun River across Dongxing city of China's Guangxi Autonomous Region. It has a population of about 103,000. It is known as one of the wealthiest cities in Vietnam with the average income in some areas exceeding US$20,000 per family. One of these areas is the Trần Phú ward.
School-related gender-based violence in Vietnam
Viet Nam has also had some research studies about violence against LGBT students, including a field survey carried out by CCIHP with 520 LGBT people with the average age of 21. This study revealed that 41% of LGBT participants suffered from discrimination and violence in either schools or universities. Save the Children Vietnam and the Institute of Social and Medical Studies completed a separate study on 170 LGBT young adults which found that discrimination against these children (at home and school) contributed to their increased risk of homelessness. They were at high risk of violence at home, school and on the streets. Only 15.9% of the LGBT youth participants had a post-secondary school education, 47.8% had only a lower secondary education, 27.6% had only a primary school education, and 8.7% had no schooling at all.
Vietnamese Cambodians
As most Vietnamese are stateless residents, they seek a living through ad-hoc various industries such as the construction, recycling and prostitution industries or as street pedlars. Vietnamese that live along the Tonle Sap lake and Mekong rivers are subsistence fishermen. A sizeable number of these stateless Vietnamese consisted of migrants that came to Cambodia between 1992 and 1993 during the UNTAC administration. The majority of Vietnamese still live below the poverty line, although a very small number of Vietnamese are represented in the Cambodian business sector. One example is Sok Kong, the head of the business conglomerate Sokimex which owns state concessionaires in the country's petroleum, tourism and entrepot industries.
Education in Vietnam
With one of the highest GDP growth rates in Asia, Vietnam is attempting to improve its education system; in 2012, estimated national budget for education was 6.3%. In the last decade, Vietnamese public reception of the country's education system has been mixed. Citizens have been critical of the rigorous curriculum, which has led to serious social issues including depression, anxiety, and even increasing suicide rates. There have been comments from the public that schools should opt for a more flexible studying program, with less emphasis on paper tests and more focus on life skills development. In response to public opinion, the Ministry of Education and Training has come up with resolutions to reform the education system, which were met with both positive and negative feedback, leaving education reform still a controversial topic to date.
Cambodia
In the Cambodia country assessment "Where Have All The Poor Gone? Cambodia Poverty Assessment 2013", the World Bank concludes: "Over the seven years from 2004 through 2011, Cambodian economic growth was tremendous, ranking amid the best in the world. Moreover, household consumption increased by nearly 40 percent. And this growth was pro-poor—not only reducing inequality, but also proportionally boosting poor people's consumption further and faster than that of the non-poor. As a result, the poverty rate dropped from 52.2 to 20.5 percent, surpassing all expectations and far exceeding the country's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) poverty target. However, the majority of these people escaped poverty only slightly: they remain highly vulnerable—even to small shocks—which could quickly bring them back into poverty."
Vietnam and the International Monetary Fund
In 2001, Vietnam sent a letter of intent to the IMF to receive a loan to fund the Poverty Reductions and Growth Funds arrangement. In order to create a greater macroeconomic stability for Vietnam they would rely on the monetary policy while under shock scenarios as it has proven to lift off interest rates. According to IMF records, Vietnam is still paying that loan and continues their membership with the IMF.
Vietnam
Vietnam's energy sector is largely dominated by Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) nationwide. As of 2017, EVN contributed about 61.4% of the country power generation system with a total power capacity of 25,884 MW. Other energy source are distributed by PetroVietnam (4,435 MW), Vinacomin (1,785 MW) and by build–operate–transfer (BOT) with other investors (10,031 MW). Most of the powers are generated from either hydropower, fossil fuel power such as coal, oil and gas while the remaining are from diesel, small hydropower and renewable energy. The Vietnamese government also previously planning to develop their first nuclear reactor as the path to establish another source of electric energy from nuclear power but the plan was abandoned in late 2016 with a majority oppose vote through the country National Assembly due to large concerns from Vietnamese society over radioactive contamination. The household gas sector in Vietnam is dominated by PetroVietnam which controls nearly 70% of the country domestic market for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Since 2011, the company also operating five renewable energy power plants including the Nhơn Trạch 2 Thermal Power Plant (750 MW), Phú Quý Wind Power Plant (6 MW), Hủa Na Hydro-power Plant (180 MW), Dakdrinh Hydro-power Plant (125 MW) and Vũng Áng 1 Thermal Power Plant (1,200 MW). According to statistics by the British Petroleum (BP), Vietnam is listed among the 52 countries that have oil and gas potential in the world with proven crude oil reserves of the country in 2015 were approximately 4.4 billion barrels and ranked first place in Southeast Asia, while the proven gas reserves were about 0.6 trillion cubic metres (tcm) and ranked the third place in Southeast Asia after Indonesia and Malaysia.
Banking in Vietnam
Vietnam’s banks suffer from low public confidence, regulatory and managerial weakness, high levels of non-performing loans (NPL), non-compliance with the Basel capital standards, and the absence of international auditing. Since 1992 Vietnam’s banking system has consisted of a combination of state-owned, joint-stock, joint-venture, and foreign banks, but the state-owned commercial banks predominate, and they suffer from high levels of NPL, most of them to state-owned enterprises. Consequently, in September 2005 Vietnam decided to equitize all five state-owned banks—a change from previous plans to equitize only two of them. In addition, Vietnam plans to boost the transparency of its financial system by establishing a credit-rating agency and performance standards for joint-stock banks. Large foreign banks are balancing their strong interest in serving multinationals in Vietnam and frustration with continuing restrictions on their activities. Although Vietnam is a cash-based society, there were 12,811 automated teller machines (ATMs) as of January 2012, and 40 million ATM Cards in circulation.
Two-child policy
In 2014, Vietnam had an estimated population of 92.5 million people, which represented 1.28% of the total world population. Currently, the total fertility rate of Vietnam is 1.8 (births per woman), which is below the replacement-level fertility of 2.1, the rate "at which a population exactly replaces itself from one generation to the next" according to the World Resources Institute.
Child poverty
The Young Lives Project is investigating the changing nature of child poverty by following nearly 12,000 children for 15 years in four countries (Ethiopia, Peru, Vietnam and India), chosen to reflect a wide range of cultural, political, geographical and social contexts. Every three to four years, researchers will collect data on the children and their families health, malnutrition, literacy, access to services and other indicators of poverty. Reports are available for these four countries that comparing the initial data obtained in 2002 with data from 2006. Peru, Vietnam and India have shown economic growth and a reduction in poverty over this time, but large inequalities still exist between rural and urban areas, and among ethnic groups. This is particularly obvious in India, a country with the second largest population of billionaires but also home to 25% of the world's poor. Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in the world, has also shown slight economic growth and reduction in poverty. Inequalities still exist, with boys more likely to be malnourished than girls and more absolute poverty in rural areas, although relative poverty is higher in urban areas. This data was collected before the 2008 drought and the recent increase in food prices, which have had a severe impact on the ability of Ethiopia to feed its population.
Foundation for International Development/Relief
FIDR is currently engaged in building schools in poor areas of Vietnam and Cambodia. Its annual budget for Vietnam is about US$150,000.This article is related to the List of non-governmental organizations in Vietnam.
Hugo Chávez
The Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, dropped from .495 in 1998 to .39 in 2011, putting Venezuela behind only Canada in the Western Hemisphere. Venezuelans aged 15 and older, 95% could also read and write, with Venezuela having one of the highest literacy rates in the region, though some scholars have disputed that literacy improvements during Chavez's presidency resulted from his administration's policies. The poverty rate fell from 48.6% in 1999 to 32.1% in 2013, according to the Venezuelan government's National Statistics Institute (INE). The drop of Venezuela's poverty rate compared to poverty in other South American countries was slightly behind that of Peru, Brazil and Panama with the poverty rate becoming higher than the Latin American average in 2013 according to the UN. In the two years following Chávez's death, the poverty rate returned to where it had been before his presidency, with a 2017 NACLA analysis stating that "reductions in poverty and inequality during the Chávez years were real, but somewhat superficial ... structural poverty and inequality, such as the quality of housing, neighborhoods, education, and employment, remained largely unchanged".
Vietnam
By 2015, 97% of the population had access to improved water sources. In 2016, Vietnam's national life expectancy stood at 80.9 years for women and 71.5 for men, and the infant mortality rate was 17 per 1,000 live births. Despite these improvements, malnutrition is still common in the rural provinces. Since the partition, North Vietnam has established a public health system that reached down to the hamlet level. After the national reunification in 1975, a nationwide health service was established. In the late 1980s, the quality of healthcare declined to some degree as a result of budgetary constraints, a shift of responsibility to the provinces and the introduction of charges. Inadequate funding has also contributed to a shortage of nurses, midwives and hospital beds; in 2000, Vietnam had only 24.7 hospital beds per 10,000 people before declining to 23.7 in 2005 as stated in the annual report of Vietnamese Health Ministry. The controversial use of herbicides as a chemical weapon by the US military during the war has left tangible, long-term impacts upon the Vietnamese people that still persists in the country until present. For instance, it led to 3 million Vietnamese people suffering health problems, one million birth defects caused directly by exposure to the chemical and 24% of the area of Vietnam being defoliated.
Thailand
In 2016, 5.81 million people lived in poverty, or 11.6 million people (17.2% of population) if "near poor" is included. Proportion of the poor relative to total population in each region was 12.96% in the Northeast, 12.35% in the South, and 9.83% in the North. In 2017, there were 14 million people who applied for social welfare (yearly income of less than ฿100,000 was required). At the end of 2017, Thailand's total household debt was ฿11.76 trillion. In 2010, 3% of all household were bankrupt. In 2016, there were estimated 30,000 homeless persons in the country.
Social issues in Vietnam
These regions do not offer the resources to conduct agricultural activities, the main source of income. The poorest rural people live in remote areas with small plots of low quality land that is unsuitable for farming. Similarly, people living along the coastline are faced with harsh climate conditions that restrict farming.
Poverty in Vietnam
There are a wide range of causes of poverty, however poverty derives mostly from demographic elements:
Smoking in Vietnam
Smoking in Vietnam is highly common, with an estimated 50% of men and 5% of women using tobacco, an estimated 18 million smokers. 47 million non-smokers in Vietnam are also regularly exposed to tobacco smoke. Vietnam’s Health Education and Communication Center estimates that 40,000 people die annually in Vietnam from first or second hand smoking, and that if nothing is done 10% of the Vietnamese population will have died from smoking by 2030. Smoking is an integral part of Vietnamese culture and exchanging cigarettes is seen as a common greeting.
Social issues in Vietnam
The primary social issues in Vietnam are rural and child poverty.
Vietnam
Vietnam is a unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist republic, one of the two communist states (the other being Laos) in Southeast Asia. Although Vietnam remains officially committed to socialism as its defining creed, its economic policies have grown increasingly capitalist, with "The Economist" characterising its leadership as "ardently capitalist communists". Under the constitution, the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) asserts their role in all branches of politics and society in the country. The President is the elected head of state and the commander-in-chief of the military, serving as the Chairman of the Council of Supreme Defence and Security, holds the second highest office in Vietnam as well as performing executive functions and state appointments and setting policy.
The General Secretary of the CPV performs numerous key administrative functions, controlling the party's national organisation. The Prime Minister is the head of government, presiding over a council of ministers composed of five deputy prime ministers and the heads of 26 ministries and commissions. Only political organisations affiliated with or endorsed by the CPV are permitted to contest elections in Vietnam. These include the Vietnamese Fatherland Front and worker and trade unionist parties.
The National Assembly of Vietnam is the unicameral legislature of the state, composed of 498 members. The legislature is open to all parties. Headed by a Chairman, it is superior to both the executive and judicial branches, with all government ministers being appointed from members of the National Assembly. The Supreme People's Court of Vietnam, headed by a Chief Justice, is the country's highest court of appeal, though it is also answerable to the National Assembly. Beneath the Supreme People's Court stand the provincial municipal courts and numerous local courts. Military courts possess special jurisdiction in matters of national security. Vietnam maintains the death penalty for numerous offences.
IFAD Vietnam
Meanwhile, the country’s poorest rural people generally have small plots of low-quality land or are landless, and their opportunities for off-farm employment are scarce. The poorest people live in remote villages in upland areas, with limited access to transportation and social interaction. Rural poor people have limited access to productive resources and basic financial services such as credit and savings. Village, commune, district and regional infrastructure is poorly developed. Rural poor people face harsh natural conditions and frequent natural disasters. They are particularly vulnerable to seasonal hardships, community-wide crises and unexpected events, such as disease, which increase a household's expenses and reduce income. Poor households tend to include more dependants, especially children. Among age groups, poverty disproportionately affects children. Poor people, particularly ethnic minorities, are often uninformed about their rights and lack access to legal assistance.
Rice production in Vietnam
Rice production in Vietnam in the Mekong and Red River deltas is important to the food supply in the country and national economy. Vietnam is one of the world's richest agricultural regions and is the second-largest (after Thailand) exporter worldwide and the world's seventh-largest consumer of rice. The Mekong Delta is the heart of the rice-producing region of the country where water, boats, houses and markets coexist to produce a generous harvest of rice. Vietnam's land area of 33 million ha has three ecosystems that dictate rice culture. These are the southern delta (with its Mekong Delta dominating rice coverage), the northern delta (the tropical monsoon area with cold winters) and the highlands of the north (with upland rice varieties). The most prominent irrigated rice system is the Mekong Delta. Rice is a staple of the national diet and is seen as a "gift from God".
Health in Vietnam
Malnutrition is still common in the provinces, and the life expectancy and infant mortality rates are stagnating. In 2001 government spending on health care corresponded to just 0.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Government subsidies covered only about 20 percent of health care expenses, with the remaining 80 percent coming out of individuals’ own pockets.
Corruption in Vietnam
In 2011, 44% of Vietnamese have reportedly paid a bribe, commonly as a form of ‘grease money’ to expedite or fulfill basic tasks or services. Bribery can also be found in the higher education sector. McCornac mentioned that corrupt practices are the norm in Vietnamese higher education, citing the low salary of teachers as a key reason why the practice of bribing to gain entry into educational institutions and to cheat in the examinations became commonplace. He also stated that the bribes were not only monetary, but also come in the form of expensive gifts such as phones and expensive bags. Anh, Nguyen & Tran-am determined through their study that corruption hampers economic growth, though they have noted in the same study that corruption is positively correlated to human capital, which is also positively correlated to economic growth. Up to this point, Coffey, Anh, Nguyen & Tran-am and McCornac have clearly illustrated that corruption brings about negative effects to the country’s economy and is detrimental to the nation’s education sector. It should be noted that the study by Anh, Nguyen & Tran-am was sponsored by the UK Department for International Development and was presented at the 2014 Vietnam Economists Annual Meeting to foreign economists, scholars and students. The authors were also western educated in the area of economics, which suggests that the study was based on a western economics perspective of corruption, consistent with earlier definitions by Transparency International. McCornac was also similarly educated in Economics and thus, his study was also based on an economics perspective. McCornac has previously taught in Vietnamese universities for about 10 years and in a related study published in 2008, he conducted informal surveys and interviews with undergraduate students, faculty members and university administrators, many of whom shared instances where they personally observed situations of corruption in the form of gift-giving and aiding to cheat.
Cambodia
In 2017 Cambodia's per capita income is $4,022 in PPP and $1,309 in nominal per capita. Cambodia graduated from the status of a Least Developed Country to a Lower Middle Income country in the same year 2016. Most rural households depend on agriculture and its related sub-sectors. Rice, fish, timber, garments and rubber are Cambodia's major exports. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) reintroduced more than 750 traditional rice varieties to Cambodia from its rice seed bank in the Philippines. These varieties had been collected in the 1960s.
Social issues in Vietnam
Vietnam scores 37.6 in the Gini coefficient index, with the top 10% accounting for 30.2% of the nation’s income and the bottom 10% receiving 3.2%. In 2008, 14% of the population lives below the national poverty line of US$1.15 per day.
Economy of Vietnam
From 1988 to December 2004, cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) commitments totaled US$46 billion. By December 2004, about 58% had been dispersed. About half of FDI has been directed at the two major cities (and environs) of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. In 2003 new foreign direct investment commitments were US$1.5 billion. The largest sector by far for licensed FDI is industry and construction. Other sectors attracting FDI are oil and gas, fisheries, construction, agriculture and forestry, transportation and communications, and hotels and tourism. From 2006 to 2010, Vietnam hoped to receive US$18 billion of FDI to support a targeted growth rate in excess of 7%. Despite rising investments, foreign investors still regard Vietnam as a risky destination, as confirmed by recent survey by the Japan External Trade Organization of Japanese companies operating in Vietnam. Many of the respondents complained about high costs of utilities, office rentals and skilled labor. Corruption, bureaucracy, lack of transparent regulations and the failure to enforce investor rights are additional obstacles to investment, according to the U.S. State Department. Vietnam tied with several nations for the 102nd place in Transparencies International's Corruption Perceptions Index in 2004.
Economy of the Republic of Vietnam
Agriculture made up around 30% of economic output in South Vietnam, a share that did not vary significantly over the years. South Vietnam's agriculture had a total area of around 6 million ha, mostly in the southern regions (the Mekong River Delta and roughly what is now the Southeast region), while the Central Highlands had few cultivated areas (see map), Other significant agricultural areas were the lowlands along the coast in the north of South Vietnam (central Vietnam including the provinces of Thừa Thiên–Huế, Quảng Nam, Bình Định). The most important crops were rice, rubber, coffee and tea, fruits and vegetables.
Poverty in Vietnam
Some achievements regarding poverty reduction in Vietnam are summarized below.
Health in Vietnam
Beginning in the late 1980s, the quality of health care began to decline as a result of budgetary constraints, a shift of responsibility to the provinces, and the introduction of charges. Inadequate funding has led to delays in planned upgrades to water supply and sewage systems. Consequently, almost half the population has no access to clean water, a deficiency that promotes such infectious diseases as malaria, dengue fever, typhoid, and cholera. Additionally, inadequate funding has contributed to a shortage of nurses, midwives, and hospital beds. In 2000, Vietnam had only 250,000 hospital beds, or 14.8 beds per 10,000 people, a very low ratio among Asian nations, according to the World Bank. Government expenditure on health has declined and the health system is largely financed through user-fees, which has direct implications for the rural poor, deterring them from accessing health care.
Economic history of Vietnam
The peasants who owned their land were rarely better off than the landless tenants. The peasants’ share of the price of rice sold at the Saigon export market was less than 25 percent. Peasants continually lost their land to the large owners because they were unable to repay loans given them by the landlords and other moneylenders at exorbitant interest rates. As a result, the large landowners of Cochinchina (less than 3 percent of the total number of landowners) owned 45 percent of the land, while the small peasants (who accounted for about 70 percent of the owners) owned only about 15 percent of the land. The number of landless families in Vietnam before World War II was estimated at half of the population.
Crime in Vietnam
Crime is present in various forms in Vietnam. According to United States 2016 OSAC Crime report, Hanoi is rated as medium in Overall Crime and Safety Situation 
Among the first organized crime group to emerge in Vietnam were the Bình Xuyên, which during the 1920s acted mainly as river pirates led by Dương Văn Dương, before later becoming a legitimate military organization that at the same time nearly controlled the entire supply of opium of Vietnam in 1954. With the arrival of Vietnamese independence in 1945 (in the North) and 1955 (in the South), organized crime activity, including protection rackets, were drastically reduced as both the Northern and Southern governments purged criminal activity in their halves of the country. In spite of this, organized crime continued to persist in both halves of Vietnam.
H'Hen Niê
As a Rade person, H'Hen Niê is currently the first and only Miss Universe Vietnam titleholder to be of an ethnic minority. In an interview, she revealed she had almost paid off all of her family's debts thanks to new opportunities after winning the competition. Understanding her roots and past struggles, H'Hen believes education is a key to break out of poverty. While she initially committed to donate 70% of her prize, she eventually listened to her mother's advice and gave away all of her cash prize worth of $10,000 to providing scholarships to students in her old schools after the competition. She hoped her story could inspire young people to overcome their difficulties and continue to pursue education. Under her Miss Universe Vietnam reign, H'Hen rallies for support for the unfortunate, the elderly as well as HIV/AIDS victims. She became a global ambassador for Room to Read in 2018, a non-profit organization focusing on providing resources for girls' education and literacy programs. As an ambassador, she is fundraising to build a new library in Lam Dong and provide scholarships to girls in Asia and Africa so that they could complete secondary education and develop key life skills.
Economic history of Vietnam
In 2001 the Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) approved a 10-year economic plan that enhanced the role of the private sector while reaffirming the primacy of the state sector in the economy. In 2003 the private sector accounted for more than one-quarter of all industrial output. However, between 2003 and 2005 Vietnam fell dramatically in the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report rankings, largely due to negative perceptions of the effectiveness of government institutions. Official corruption is endemic, and Vietnam lags in property rights, the efficient regulation of markets, and labor and financial market reforms. Although Vietnam's economy, which continues to expand at an annual rate in excess of 7 percent, is one of the fastest-growing in the world, the economy is growing from an extremely low base, reflecting the crippling effect of the Second Indochina War (1954–75) and repressive economic measures introduced in its aftermath.Until early in the 10th century, Vietnam–with many name variants adopted by various feudal kings–had been most of the time under the Chinese domination, approximately 1053 years.
Poverty in Cambodia
Cambodia remains on the list of developing countries, despite the country's recent growth in economy. Despite the current trend of urbanization in Cambodia, most of its citizens live in rural areas, and they are the ones that are the most struck by poverty. Cambodia is among the countries which have made considerable gains in averting poverty in recent past. As most of the people have risen just above the poverty line, there is still a high number of people who are experiencing the devastating effects of poverty including malnutrition and lack of access to basic health care services. Statistics from 2014 showed that about 13.5% of the country's total population continue to live in extreme poverty, which was reduced from 53% in 2004.
Economic history of Vietnam
In 2003 the private sector accounted for more than one-quarter of all industrial output. Despite these signs of progress, the World Economic Forum's 2005 Global Competitiveness Report, which reflects the subjective judgments of the business community, ranked Vietnam eighty-first in growth competitiveness in the world (down from sixtieth place in 2003) and eightieth in business competitiveness (down from fiftieth place in 2003), well behind its model China, which ranked forty-ninth and fifty-seventh in these respective categories. Vietnam's sharp deterioration in the rankings from 2003 to 2005 was attributable in part to negative perceptions of the effectiveness of government institutions. Official corruption is endemic despite efforts to curb it. Vietnam also lags behind China in terms of property rights, the efficient regulation of markets, and labor and financial market reforms. State-owned banks that are poorly managed and suffer from non-performing loans still dominate the financial sector.
Vietnamese Americans
In 2017, 10.6 percent of Vietnamese Americans lived under the poverty line , lower than the poverty rate for all Americans at 12.3% percent.
Corruption in Vietnam
Despite the progress, it should be noted from the UNODC report that Vietnam has made various exceptions, such as by not criminalizing bribery in the private sector. This may indicate that while there may be some alignment on certain aspects of corruption with the international actors, the Vietnamese government understands what makes Vietnamese society thrive. It would appear that the Vietnamese citizens understand and view corruption differently. Hence, there exists a mismatch of paradigms could be one of the sources for the misunderstandings. Neither the Vietnamese nor the international actors have been able to paint an accurate picture on the state of corruption in Vietnam, because what western foreigners may perceive as corruption can be perceived as ‘patronage’ or clientalism by the local Vietnamese, which Sato mentioned is part of their culture. This mismatch is exacerbated by rankings such as the Corruption Perceptions Index. This Index, founded and managed by Transparency International, is one that many around the world use as the basis for their academic or professional work. It is supported by various western countries and western based international Non-Profits and organisations, who also serve as the donors to Transparency International. While popular among scholars, the Index itself does have some limitations. One of them is that the definitions, benchmarks and methods employed by the Corruption Perceptions Index is based on western perspectives and values, which may have a varied perspective on the issue of corruption, its causes and consequences compared to other non-western nations it assesses. Another limitation is the Index only looks at public sector corruption, thus does not paint a comprehensive picture of a country’s corruption due to the absence of data from other sectors. Finally, the index itself is based on ‘perceptions’ of corruption. Kaufman, Kray & Mastruzzi mentioned in their work that one of the ways which corruption is being measured is through gathering ‘informed views of relevant stakeholders’ such as firms, NGOs, individuals, public officials and donors from both within Vietnam and abroad. Kaufman, Kray & Mastruzzi also acknowledged in their work that there can be no precise measure of corruption, regardless of whether subjective or objective indicators were used. This suggests since the data collected is largely subjective and inaccurate, it could impact the accuracy of scholarly studies based on this data.
Vietnam
, the population of Vietnam standing at approximately /1e6 round 1 million people. The population had grown significantly from the 1979 census, which showed the total population of reunified Vietnam to be 52.7 million. In 2012, the country's population was estimated at approximately 90.3 million. Based on the 2009 census, 70.4% of the Vietnamese population are living in rural areas while only 29.6% living in urban areas although the average growth rate of the urban population have recently increasing which mainly attributed to migration and rapid urbanisation. The dominant Viet or Kinh ethnic group constituted nearly 73.6 million people or 85.8% of the population, with most of their population is concentrated mainly in the alluvial deltas and coastal plains of the country. As a majority ethnic group, the Kinh possess significant political and economic influence over the country. Despite this, Vietnam is also home to other 54 ethnic minority groups, including the Hmong, Dao, Tày, Thai and Nùng. Many ethnic minorities such as the Muong who are closely related to the Kinh dwell in the highlands which cover two-thirds of Vietnam's territory.
Economy of Vietnam
Vietnam's current economic turmoil has given rise to question of a new period of changing political economy, however. Poverty remains to be the main concern on the national performance index as of 2018. The Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI) found that 28% of survey respondents cited poverty as their main problem. Most respondents agreed with the statement that "[P]overty reduction is imperative to ensuring that Vietnam becomes an advanced, developed country. The percentage of the poorest Vietnamese respondents who believed that their economic situation would worsen increased from 13% in 2016 to 26% in 2017. The percentage of respondents with health insurance increased from 74% in 2016 to 81% in 2017, with strongest gains in the rural population groups.
Irrigation in Vietnam
Due to the fast development of service and industry sectors in Vietnam during the last decades the contribution of agriculture to the national GDP decreases continuously from 80-90% to approximately 30-50%. Nevertheless, agriculture remains to be an important sector providing employment especially in the rural areas. Furthermore, the contribution of irrigated agriculture does not include fisheries, aquaculture, forestry or rain-fed agriculture so does not reflect the agricultural sector as a whole.
The economic returns from irrigation production activities for each unit of water used vary significantly dependent on river basin (from 1,000 VND/m3 to 14,000 VND/m³). It can be assumed that the lower the return, the lower the level of efficiency or the lower the value of the irrigated crop.
Model minority
The educational attainment rate of the Vietnamese population in France is the highest among overseas Vietnamese populations, a legacy that dates back to the colonial era of Vietnam, when privileged families and those with connections to the colonial government often sent their children to France to study. In addition to high achievements in education, the Vietnamese population in France is also largely successful in economic terms. When the first major wave of Vietnamese migrants arrived in France during World War I, a number already held professional occupations in their new country shortly after their arrival. More recently, refugees who arrived in France after the Fall of Saigon are often more financially stable than their counterparts who settled in North America, Australia and the rest of Europe, due to better linguistic and cultural knowledge of the host country, which allowed them to enter the education system and/or higher paying professions with little trouble. Within a single generation, median income for French-born Vietnamese has risen to above the French median income.
Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam
The Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (), commonly known as BIDV, is a Vietnamese state-owned bank in Vietnam. It is the country's number one bank in net income ($70 million USD) and the second biggest bank by assets ($18.8 billion USD) as of 2012, behind Agribank. According to the United Nations Development Programme report on the 100 largest enterprises in Vietnam, BIDV came in at the 4th position after Agribank, VNPT, and EVN.
Agriculture in Vietnam
In Viet Nam, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, are important sectors of the economy, accounting for 21 percent of GDP in 2009. Vietnam possesses certain comparative advantages in agriculture and forestry due to the country's abundance of factors in favor of productive crop like cultivation land, forest cover, sea territories, tropical climate and labor (availability and cost).
Community development
Non-governmental organizations (NGO) in Vietnam, legalized in 1991, have claimed goals to develop civil society, which was essentially nonexistent prior to the Đổi Mới economic reforms. NGO operations in Vietnam do not exactly live up to their claimed goals to expand civil society. This is mainly due to the fact that NGOs in Vietnam are mostly donor-driven, urban, and elite-based organizations that employ staff with ties to the Communist Party and Central government. NGOs are also overlooked by the Vietnam Fatherland Front, an umbrella organization that reports observations directly to the Party and Central government. Since NGOs in Vietnam are not entirely non-governmental, they have been coined instead as 'VNGOs.' Most VNGOs have originated from either the state, hospital or university groups, or individuals not previously associated with any groups. VNGOs have not yet reached those most in need, such as the rural poor, due to the entrenched power networks' opposition to lobbying for issues such the rural poor's land rights. Authoritarianism is prevalent in nearly all Vietnamese civic organizations. Authoritarian practices are more present in inner-organizational functions than in organization leaders' worldviews. These leaders often reveal both authoritarian and libertarian values in contradiction. Representatives of Vietnam's NGO's stated that disagreements are normal, but conflicts within an organization should be avoided, demonstrating the one-party "sameness" mentality of authoritarian rule.
Climate change in Vietnam
Vietnam is one of the top 10 countries with the most serious air pollution in the world. The level of unsafe particles is similar to that of large cities and industrial areas in China. The International Monetary Fund reports that Vietnam’s greenhouse gas emissions will triple by 2030, basically because of the dependence on fossil fuels for power generation.
Social issues in Vietnam
Gross Domestic Product grew at an average of 7.5% from 2000-2008. The country was able to reduce poverty fate from 58.1% in the 1990s to 14% in 2008. While the country grows and overall poverty drops, urban dwellers benefitted more than their rural counterparts and a wide income disparity grew between the rich and poor. The regions with the highest relative poverty include the north-west, north-central, central highlands, central coast and north-east.
Mekong Plus
Mekong Plus is a non-profit, community development organization. It operates in rural areas of Southern Vietnam & Cambodia. The key principles of Mekong Plus are:One major program is focusing on the poorest (who live with less than $1/day); with training and microcredit, support to education and health, assisting the people for proper housing, Mekong Plus currently works with 4500 households in Vietnam & Cambodia. On average it takes 4 years to double their income. Over 8000 households have already succeeded so.
Among other activities Mekong Plus provides sustainable employment for women. Together with the sister enterprise Mekong Creations and Mekong Quilts (today merged into Mekong Quilts), they sell products handmade by women in rural areas of Cambodia and Vietnam. At the moment the project is employing about 260 women, providing them with work close to their homes and families. Mekong+ Quilts is owned by the 2 Vietnamese NGOs which Mekong Plus helped to set up: Thiên Chí(which operates in Bình Thuận province) and Anh Dương (which operates in Hậu Giang province). All profits go to social development in the provinces of Vietnam and Cambodia and are being distributed by Thiện Chí & Anh Dương. The profits are returned to the villages both directly in the form of salaries, and indirectly in funding for community development projects. Examples of development projects are: subsiding latrines in remote areas to better hygiene, or the pig, - and chicken-raising programs, assisting poor farmers on how to increase their profit (training, follow-up, microfinance). The goal is community development.
List of countries by Sen social welfare function
108 | Vietnam | $3488 per year per person
Child labour in Vietnam
The Labor newspaper reported that 30 percent of Vietnamese children between the age of six to seventeen join the labor force. Most children stay close to home to help their family business. However, a report released by the Ministry of Labor – Invalid and Social Affairs in 2008 showed that there are 26,027 children that are in hard labor conditions in hazardous environment such as gold mines, timber operations or cargo transport. The actual number could be much larger as children employed as domestic servants, restaurant assistants or children working on the streets as beggars, shoes shiners or newspaper and lottery sellers were not covered in the report. The report also revealed that up to 62 out of 173 manufacturing factories in Ho Chi Minh City employed child laborers, 50 percent of whom are below 15 years old. The working environment of the employed generally includes long hours of work, low wages, poor facilities and even physical and mental abuse.
Vietnamese cash
In modern Vietnam the supply of undiscovered cash coins is rapidly declining as large amounts of Vietnamese cash coins were excavated during the 1980s and 1990s, in Vietnam the excavation of antiques such as cash coins is an industry in itself and the cash coins are mostly being dug up by farmers. After the Vietnam War ended in 1975 a large number of metal detectors numbering in the many thousands were left behind in the former area of South Vietnam which helped fuel the rise of this industry. The antique bronze industry is mostly concentrated in small rural villages where farmers rent metal detectors to search their own lands for bronze antiques to then either sell as scrap or to dealers, these buyers purchase lumps of cash coins by either kilogramme or ton to then hire skilled people to search through these lumps of cash coins for sellable specimens, these coins are then sold to other dealers in Vietnam, China, and Japan. During the zenith of the coin recovery business in Vietnam the number of bulk coins found on a monthly basis was fifteen tons but only roughly fifteen kilogrammes of those coins were sellable and the rest of the coins would melted down as scrap metal. As better metal detectors that could search deeper more Vietnamese cash coins were discovered but in modern times the supply of previously undiscovered Vietnamese cash coins is quickly diminishing.
Commercial sexual exploitation of children
In Vietnam, family poverty, low family education and family dysfunction were found to be primary causes for CSEC. Sixteen per cent of the children interviewed were illiterate, 38% had only primary-level schooling. Sixty-six per cent said that tuition and school fees were beyond the means of their families.
Economy of Vietnam
The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2017. Inflation below 5 % is in green.
In 2003, Vietnam produced an estimated 30.7 million cubic meters of wood. Production of sawn wood was a more modest 2,950 cubic meters. In 1992, in response to dwindling forests, Vietnam imposed a ban on the export of logs and raw timber. In 1997, the ban was extended to all timber products except wooden artifacts. During the 1990s, Vietnam began to reclaim land for forests with a tree-planting program.
Poverty in Vietnam
Maintaining high economic growth to underpin further rapid reductions in poverty. The high and sustainable growth is the pre-condition to create employment, improve income and create resources needed to implement well – being and social - safety programs. The high economic growth from 2000 to 2010 was regarded as substantial cause in poverty reduction and hunger eradication.
Cambodia
"Two decades of economic growth have helped make Cambodia a global leader in reducing poverty. The success story means the Southeast Asian nation that overcame a vicious civil war now is classified as a lower-middle income economy by the World Bank Group (WBG). Among 69 countries that have comparable data, Cambodia ranked fourth in terms of the fastest poverty reduction in the world from 2004–2008. (See more details of Cambodia's achievements on poverty reduction. The poverty rate fell to 10 percent in 2013, and further reduction of poverty is expected for both urban and rural households throughout 2015–2016. However, human development, particularly in the areas of health and education, remains an important challenge and development priority for Cambodia"
Vietnam and the International Monetary Fund
Since 2012, the Vietnamese dong closely tied to the U.S. dollar. Every year or two Vietnam undergoes a cycle staff report based off Article IV Consultation and hold discussions of their economic developments. As of July 2016, Vietnam has found some promising progress as they have decreased their poverty rate by one percent and managed to lower their inflation. Their main source of exports are crude oil, electronics, coffee, rice, and rubber, while their key export buyers are the US, Japan, and the developing members of ASEAN.
Vietnam
As a result of several land reform measures, Vietnam has become a major exporter of agricultural products. It is now the world's largest producer of cashew nuts, with a one-third global share; the largest producer of black pepper, accounting for one-third of the world's market; and the second-largest rice exporter in the world after Thailand since the 1990s. Subsequently, Vietnam is also the world's second largest exporter of coffee. The country has the highest proportion of land use for permanent crops together with other nations in the Greater Mekong Subregion. Other primary exports include tea, rubber and fishery products although agriculture's share of Vietnam's GDP has fallen in recent decades, declining from 42% in 1989 to 20% in 2006 as production in other sectors of the economy has risen.
Poverty in Vietnam
As an under-developed country, Vietnam had been prioritized to receive Official Development Assistance (ODA) from international organizations and developed countries such as The World Bank, The Asian Development Bank, The United Nations and The European Commission. Over the last decades, these organizations have provided millions of dollars to invest for infrastructure, human resource development, public administration reform. For example, in the period of 1993–2001 a total of US$17.5 billion was pledged to the Government of Vietnam, with annual pledges remaining at a constant level in the order of US$2.2 billion each year. From this amount, the total value of signed ODA is around US$14 billion, with actual disbursements estimated to be US$9 billion.
Vietnam
Vietnam is located on the eastern Indochinese Peninsula between the latitudes 8° and 24°N, and the longitudes 102° and 110°E. It covers a total area of approximately . The combined length of the country's land boundaries is , and its coastline is long. At its narrowest point in the central Quảng Bình Province, the country is as little as across, though it widens to around in the north. Vietnam's land is mostly hilly and densely forested, with level land covering no more than 20%. Mountains account for 40% of the country's land area, and tropical forests cover around 42%. The Red River Delta in the north, a flat, roughly triangular region covering , is smaller but more intensely developed and more densely populated than the Mekong River Delta in the south. Once an inlet of the Gulf of Tonkin, it has been filled in over the millennia by riverine alluvial deposits. The delta, covering about , is a low-level plain no more than above sea level at any point. It is criss-crossed by a maze of rivers and canals, which carry so much sediment that the delta advances into the sea every year.
Southern Vietnam is divided into coastal lowlands, the mountains of the Annamite Range, and extensive forests. Comprising five relatively flat plateaus of basalt soil, the highlands account for 16% of the country's arable land and 22% of its total forested land. The soil in much of southern part of Vietnam is relatively low in nutrients as a result of intense cultivation. Several minor earthquakes have been recorded in the past with most occurred near the northern Vietnamese border in the provinces of Điện Biên, Lào Cai and Sơn La while some are recorded in the offshore of the central part of the country. The northern part of the country consists mostly of highlands and the Red River Delta. Fansipan (also called as Phan Xi Păng) which is located in Lào Cai Province is the highest mountain in Vietnam, standing high. From north to south Vietnam, the country also has numerous islands with Phú Quốc being the largest. The Hang Sơn Đoòng Cave is considered as the current largest cave passage in the world since its discovery in 2009 while both the Ba Bể Lake and Mekong River being the largest lake and longest river in the country respectively.
Crime in Vietnam
Prostitution is against the law in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Nevertheless, some women in the country are prostitutes, either willingly or unwillingly. As many females in the country are stricken with poverty, selling their body is deemed as one of, if not the only, option for them. One source estimates the number of prostitutes in Vietnam to be 20,000 to 70,000.
Poverty in Cambodia
Cambodia has high levels of youth unemployment. The country recorded a low unemployment rate of about 0.3 percent in 2014. However, detailed assessments of the labor market show problematic and high levels of youth unemployment especially the youths living in urban areas.  A survey by the National Institute of Statistics of Cambodia revealed that about 202, 304 Cambodian nationals aged above 15 years are unemployed. The high levels of youth unemployment contribute to a high dependency ratio at the family level and increased pressure on the available resources at the family level. Unemployment contributes to lack of income and following poor standards of living. Also, there is a current trend involving movement from the agricultural sector to the industry and the services sector.  However, there is stagnation in the productivity in the industries. Still, the sectorial shifts have not done much in leading to employment in the occupations requiring high skills.
North–South express railway (Vietnam)
Vietnam is a country with a relatively complete and early railway system in the Southeast Asia region. Experiencing ups and downs over a hundred years of history, with the breakthrough of other modes of transport, the railway network is still stuck in place, not only no further extension but also being dismantled. The building of infrastructure has been extremely delayed in Vietnam. Vietnam also has a tremendous number of motorcycles, It is aging now in which there is on motorcycle for every two people. Motorization will speed up and if average incomes rise the number of cars will also keep growing. What's happening can also be seen in the history of neighboring countries. Therefore, as a solution, a high-speed mass transport system will become necessary.
Land reform in Vietnam
During the period of French rule of Indochina (1887-1954) Vietnam consisted of three regions: Tonkin—the rice-growing area of the Red River valley of northern Vietnam; Cochinchina—the rice-growing area of the Mekong Delta of southern Vietnam; and Annam—the connective between the two regions, consisting of a narrow coastal plain and highlands. Tonkin and Annam had difficulty growing enough rice to feed their population and often imported rice from Cochinchina which produced a surplus. 
Under French rule, French citizens and Vietnamese supporters of the French (mostly Roman Catholics), were granted large tracts of land, confiscated or obtained in some manner from its traditional occupants and owners. In southern Vietnam, the production of industrial crops for export, notably rubber, began on a large scale. Vietnam was managed by the French primarily to produce revenue which was attained by exports, taxation and government monopolies. By the 1930s, one result of French economic exploitation was a serious problem of unequal land distribution. Approximately 80 percent of the population of Vietnam was rural and depended upon agriculture for a livelihood. About one million families—40 percent of the rural population of southern Vietnam—were landless tenants. In Northern Vietnam about 21 percent of the rural population was landless and another 35 percent owned only very small parcels of land. Out of a total population of Vietnam of around 25 million in 1940, 7 or 8 million people were probably landless peasants. The country's richest agriculture region, the Mekong delta, was considered one of the five worst areas in the world for the prevalence of landlessness and tenancy among its inhabitants.
Economy of Vietnam
Although the industrial sector contributed 40.1% of GDP in 2004, it employed only 12.9% of the workforce. In 2000, 22.4% of industrial production was attributable to non-state activities. From 1994 to 2004, the industrial sector grew at an average annual rate of 10.3%. Manufacturing contributed 20.3% of GDP in 2004, while employing 10.2% of the workforce. From 1994 to 2004, manufacturing GDP grew at an average annual rate of 11.2%. The top manufacturing sectors — food processing, cigarettes and tobacco, textiles, chemicals, and electrical goods — experienced rapid growth. Benefits from its proximity to China with lower labor cost, Vietnam is becoming a new manufacturing hub in Asia, especially for Korean and Japanese firms. For instance, Samsung produces about 40% of its phones in Vietnam.
Education in Vietnam
Children normally start primary education at the age of six. Education at this level lasts for 5 years and is compulsory for all children.The country's literacy rate is over 90%.
IFAD Vietnam
Steady and strong growth in recent years have fuelled Vietnam’s ambitions to move up to middle-income country status. A net importer of food during the early 1980s, Vietnam has become one of the biggest rice exporters in the world. The agriculture sector accounts for more than 22 per cent of GDP, 30 per cent of exports and 52 per cent of all employment. Past agricultural growth was largely based on bringing additional physical factors of production into use, including land, irrigation water, labour and new technologies. Further growth acceleration in Vietnam during the 1990s was brought about through institutional restructuring that created incentives to invest and enhance productivity in a market-oriented economy. For example, the effects on agricultural growth of price liberalization and land titling were dramatic. The rural sector has shown resilience and a capacity for change and adaptation. The growth in agricultural output contributed greatly to improved household income, as roughly 70 per cent of the Vietnamese population is engaged in agricultural activities.
Health systems by country
The overall quality of health in Vietnam is regarded as good, as reflected by 2005 estimates of life expectancy (70.61 years) and infant mortality (25.95 per 1,000 live births). However, malnutrition is still common in the provinces, and the life expectancy and infant mortality rates are stagnating. In 2001 government spending on health care corresponded to just 0.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Government subsidies covered only about 20 percent of health care expenses, with the remaining 80 percent coming out of individuals’ own pockets.
Poverty in Vietnam
The ordinance of the poverty line applied for the period of 2011 – 2015 provided that.
With the new poverty line, Vietnam's percentage of households was estimated 12 percent at the end of 2011.