Publication: Making Difficult Choices: Vietnam in Transition
Loading...
Date
2008
ISSN
Published
2008
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
After decades of war, with a dilapidated infrastructure and millions of people dead, wounded or displaced, Vietnam could have been considered a hopeless case in economic development. Yet, it is now about to enter the ranks of middle-income countries. The obvious question is: How did this happen? This paper goes one step further, asking not which policies were adopted, but rather why they were adopted. This question is all the more intriguing because the process did not involve one group of individuals displacing another within the structure of power. To answer this question, the paper relies on the insights of those who were actually involved in the economic experiments, conceptual discussions, and political maneuvering that led to the adoption of key reforms. Especially, it builds on a series of long and regular conversations with H. E. the late Vo Van Kiet, one of Vietnam's leading figures. In doing so, it brings into the open the inside story of Doi Moi, a process that is not known by outsiders and remains opaque to most Vietnamese. The relevance of this exercise is not merely historical. Understanding how reforms were engineered may yield valuable lessons for other developing countries. It is also relevant for Vietnam, as two decades of rapid economic growth have resulted in dramatic changes in its economy and society. While praising the decision-making processes that allowed Vietnam to successfully emerge from poverty, the paper also explores the adjustments that could be needed for it to become an industrial country.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“Rama, Martin. 2008. Making Difficult Choices: Vietnam in Transition. Commission on Growth and Development Working Paper;No. 40. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28014 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Philippines : Country Procurement Assessment Report(Washington, DC, 2008-10)Every year, the Philippine government spends hundreds of billions of pesos to buy the goods and services it needs to carry out projects and deliver services to its citizens. This money comes from the budget that it funds out of its own revenues and from loans and grants extended by foreign sources such as multilateral development banks and bilateral donors. Deciding how to spend this money is a very important responsibility on the part of government leaders and officials, not only because of the large amounts but also the public trust involved. Citizens and taxpayers have a right to expect that their government will spend these funds wisely and honestly, for the greatest public good. Procurement is a key step in the process of getting the best value for the people's peso. The process involves announcing or advertising what the government needs, inviting qualified parties or individuals to offer their bids, evaluating those bids, awarding contracts to the chosen bidders, monitoring their delivery and performance, paying them and recording the results of the whole process for others to see. It also involves making sure that the bidding is fair and transparent to all, and that anyone with a legitimate complaint can be given speedy justice.Publication Cambodia(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-12)Cambodia is one of the world's most open economies, sustaining high levels of growth in an environment of relatively weak governance. Emerging from a legacy of genocide and civil conflict, the country has sought to address human and social capital deficits across sectors, weaknesses in public finance, and corruption. Despite improvements in access to basic services, governance constraints persist and may threaten gains from economic integration. Over the 2004-10 period, the Bank's engagement on Governance and Anticorruption (GAC) issues in Cambodia was not defined by a single, overarching priority or entry point (such as core public sector management, natural resource management, or service delivery). Rather, the Bank was opportunistic, opting to support the government's GAC efforts across multiple sectors and institutions. The relevance of this opportunistic approach is judged to be moderately relevant. The Bank's objectives on public financial management (PFM) were highly relevant given Cambodia's nontransparent and weak public expenditure management and limited capacity. The Bank's response to sectoral governance weaknesses such as red tape, inefficiencies, and other forms of rent-seeking in customs is rated modest given the need for the government to implement its World Trade Organization commitments. The Bank's project level engagement is rated as moderately relevant. As a basis for reinstating suspended projects, portfolio-wide measures included the use of an Independent Procurement Agency (IPA) for the International Development Association (IDA) procurements, and the implementation of Good Governance Frameworks (GGF) for all IDA projects.Publication Changing Norms is Key to Fighting Everyday Corruption(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2011-10)One of the biggest impediments to anticorruption efforts is the fact that corrupt practices have become so institutionalized in everyday society that citizens view them as fixed and incontestable. To break down such an entrenched mind-set, the public s ignorance of their rights, cynicism, fear of reprisal, and mentality of submission to the status quo must first be defeated. Perhaps most important, the efficacy challenge needs to be addressed. Citizens generally must believe that they can actually do something about corruption in order to summon the courage to act upon that belief. Based on CommGAP s interactions with the global anticorruption community as well as earlier research, we were able to collate 18 representative instances (case studies) from around the world, with real-life examples of citizens coming together to speak up against corruption and social norms vis-à-vis corruption or to change public services affected by corrupt practices. This report is a one-step-up analysis of the collated case studies, which is intended to shed light on practical approaches, tools, and techniques that have been successful in bringing citizens together to stand against the daunting phenomenon of corruption.Publication Fighting Corruption in Public Services : Chronicling Georgia's Reforms(World Bank, 2012-02-09)This book chronicles the anticorruption reforms that have transformed public service in Georgia since the Rose Revolution in late 2003. The focus is on the 'how' behind successful reforms of selected public services. This book tries to answer some of these questions. It is based largely on data and informed by interviews with past and current high-ranking government officials who provide insights from within government on the challenges and solutions, the decisions, and the trade-offs considered. This book does not assess Georgia's overall reforms since the rose revolution. It does not address efforts toward democratization, which were a key part of the rose revolution. The book focuses on how the state was able to root out corruption and eliminate red tape in selected public services. It does not analyze areas in which government efforts are still continuing or may have fallen short. Nor does it suggest any causality between anticorruption reforms and growth or social outcomes. From the case studies on each of these efforts, the book identifies a set of common factors that led to the success of the reforms.Publication Philippines Country Procurement Assessment Report 2012(Manila, 2013)Proper public procurement practices directly reflect good governance. Transparent and effective procurement practices minimize expenditure and create opportunity. Procurement is an enormous component in the process by which governments build infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals. It involves the management of significant amounts of money and is therefore often the cause for allegations of corruption and government inefficiency. The difference between getting public procurement right and doing it wrong has the potential to be either highly rewarding, or highly damaging. In some nations, reforms implemented to improve the efficiency of public procurement have resulted in savings of 1% of a country's gross domestic product. One can see why public procurement is so significant to the development of a country and its people. Citizens have the right to expect their government to spend these funds for the good of the people. In the past, corruption, inefficiency, ignorance, and disorganization have resulted in billions of pesos worth of losses. It is with the importance of these issues in mind that this report is produced to report on the state of procurement in the Philippines today. A 2012 CPAR action plan integrating all the existing and proposed initiatives and recommendations to address the areas for improvement in the Public Procurement System is presented at the end of this report. The action plan provides the road map and agenda for procurement reforms to be undertaken by the government, together with its development partners during 2013-2016. Some of the priorities focus on strengthening monitoring and enforcement and procurement capacity, and improving procurement processes and practices, i.e., (i) implementation of the professionalization program, (ii) implementation of the Agency Procurement Compliance and Performance Indicator, or APCPI and development of mechanisms to enforce compliance, (iii) review and possible revision of the IRR to provide procedures for international competitive bidding, (iv) establishment of an independent complaints or protest review body and development of its governing rules and procedures, and (v) development and implementation of a framework to sustain and ensure CSO participation in procurement monitoring. The Philippine development forum sub-working Group on Procurement will continue to monitor the implementation of the action plan, ensure the availability of funding support and address issues that may arise during implementation.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Empowerment in Practice : From Analysis to Implementation(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2006)This book represents an effort to present an easily accessible framework to readers, especially those for whom empowerment remains a puzzling development concern, conceptually and in application. The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 explains how the empowerment framework can be used for understanding, measuring, monitoring, and operationalizing empowerment policy and practice. Part 2 presents summaries of each of the five country studies, using them to discuss how the empowerment framework can be applied in very different country and sector contexts and what lessons can be learned from these test cases. While this book can offer only a limited empirical basis for the positive association between empowerment and development outcomes, it does add to the body of work supporting the existence of such a relationship. Perhaps more importantly, it also provides a framework for future research to test the association and to prioritize practical interventions seeking to empower individuals and groups.Publication World Development Report 2008(Washington, DC, 2007)The world's demand for food is expected to double within the next 50 years, while the natural resources that sustain agriculture will become increasingly scarce, degraded, and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In many poor countries, agriculture accounts for at least 40 percent of GDP and 80 percent of employment. At the same time, about 70 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. World Development Report 2008 seeks to assess where, when, and how agriculture can be an effective instrument for economic development, especially development that favors the poor. It examines several broad questions: How has agriculture changed in developing countries in the past 20 years? What are the important new challenges and opportunities for agriculture? Which new sources of agricultural growth can be captured cost effectively in particular in poor countries with large agricultural sectors as in Africa? How can agricultural growth be made more effective for poverty reduction? How can governments facilitate the transition of large populations out of agriculture, without simply transferring the burden of rural poverty to urban areas? How can the natural resource endowment for agriculture be protected? How can agriculture's negative environmental effects be contained? This year's report marks the 30th year the World Bank has been publishing the World Development Report.Publication World Development Report 1987(New York: Oxford University Press, 1987)This report, consisting of two parts, is the tenth in the annual series assessing development issues. Part I reviews recent trends in the world economy and their implications for the future prospects of developing countries. It stresses that better economic performance is possible in both industrial and developing countries, provided the commitment to economic policy reforms is maintained and reinforced. In regard to the external debt issues, the report argues for strengthened cooperation among industrial countries in the sphere of macroeconomic policy to promote smooth adjustment to the imbalances caused by external payments (in developing countries). Part II reviews and evaluates the varied experience with government policies in support of industrialization. Emphasis is placed on policies which affect both the efficiency and sustainability of industrial transformation, especially in the sphere of foreign trade. The report finds that developing countries which followed policies that promoted the integration of their industrial sector into the international economy through trade have fared better than those which insulated themselves from international competition.Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-06-06)Global growth is projected to slow significantly in the second half of this year, with weakness continuing in 2024. Inflation pressures persist, and tight monetary policy is expected to weigh substantially on activity. The possibility of more widespread bank turmoil and tighter monetary policy could result in even weaker global growth. Rising borrowing costs in advanced economies could lead to financial dislocations in the more vulnerable emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). In low-income countries, in particular, fiscal positions are increasingly precarious. Comprehensive policy action is needed at the global and national levels to foster macroeconomic and financial stability. Among many EMDEs, and especially in low-income countries, bolstering fiscal sustainability will require generating higher revenues, making spending more efficient, and improving debt management practices. Continued international cooperation is also necessary to tackle climate change, support populations affected by crises and hunger, and provide debt relief where needed. In the longer term, reversing a projected decline in EMDE potential growth will require reforms to bolster physical and human capital and labor-supply growth.Publication World Development Report 1984(New York: Oxford University Press, 1984)Long-term needs and sustained effort are underlying themes in this year's report. As with most of its predecessors, it is divided into two parts. The first looks at economic performance, past and prospective. The second part is this year devoted to population - the causes and consequences of rapid population growth, its link to development, why it has slowed down in some developing countries. The two parts mirror each other: economic policy and performance in the next decade will matter for population growth in the developing countries for several decades beyond. Population policy and change in the rest of this century will set the terms for the whole of development strategy in the next. In both cases, policy changes will not yield immediate benefits, but delay will reduce the room for maneuver that policy makers will have in years to come.