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• GDP: US$51.6 billion (2005 estimate).
• Main exports: Crude oil, textiles and garments, footwear, rice, coffee and fish.
• Main imports: Machinery and equipment, refined petroleum and steel.
• Main trade partners: Exports to: USA, Japan, China and Australia. Imports from: China, Korea (Rep), Japan and Singapore.
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The economy of Vietnam was devastated by 30 years of war up to 1975, after which policy errors and a USA-enforced trade boycott
combined to stifle development. Since the end of the boycott in 1994, and the introduction of liberalising and deregulating
measures by the Government, the Vietnamese economy has undergone significant growth of around 8 to 9 per cent annually. The
1997 Asian financial crisis put a temporary brake on the economy but annual growth has since recovered to 8.4 per cent in
2005; average inflation was 4.4 per cent between 2001 and 2005, and unemployment has hovered around 6 or 7 per cent in the
past few years.
Agriculture remains the principal employer in Vietnam and produces 23 per cent of total output. Rice, of which Vietnam is
the world’s second-largest exporter (after Thailand), is the staple crop. Other cash crops include sugar cane, coffee, rubber,
tea, cotton and groundnuts. Timber was once exploited on a large scale but the industry was cut back throughout the 1990s
prior to a total ban in 1997. Oil, coal and natural gas are present in significant quantities, along with deposits of tin,
zinc, antimony, chromium and gold. The oil and gas fields are mostly offshore and of relatively low quality, but after steady
growth during the 1990s, it accounted for 26 per cent of Vietnam’s industrial output by 2000. The remainder of the industrial
sector is devoted to the production of textiles, chemicals, processed foods and machinery. The industrial sector, whose annual
growth has averaged over 10 per cent since 1995, accounts for 39 per cent of GDP.
The ending of the US embargo in 1994 allowed Vietnam to join institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, as well as giving
access to the wider international financial system. The banking and finance sector has undergone rapid growth in the last
few years, and the Government has belatedly realised the importance of modernising what is a fairly primitive system. Similar
considerations apply to Vietnam’s relatively poor infrastructure and the archaic condition of many of its state-owned industries.
Vietnam is a member of the Asian Development Bank and has signed the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement. The country's accession to
the World Trade Organisation is expected to take place in 2006.
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Overview 
