Vietnam’s Industrialization Strategy in the Age of Globalization

Under the deepening globalization, Vietnam is striving for the national goal of industrialization and modernization, a goal widely shared by other developing and transition countries. After seventeen years since the inception of the doi moi reform, and after roughly a decade of serious international integration, Vietnam is still not prepared to take full advantage of trade and investment liberalization for economic development. The fact that international integration comes with both challenges and opportunities is generally well understood, but concrete action to raise international competitiveness is slow to emerge. Various measures such as industrial promotion, enterprise reform, FDI absorption, and trade and investment policy are not integrated. The lack of transparency and certainty in policy environment remains the most serious obstacle for both domestic and foreign firms.