Vietnam is a development success story. Political and economic reforms (Doi Moi) launched in 1986 have transformed Vietnam from one of the poorest countries in the world, with per capita income below $100, to a lower middle income country within a quarter of a century with per capita income of over $2,000 by the end of 2014. To date, Viet Nam has achieved most and in some cases surpassed a number of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly with the goals on poverty reduction, education and gender equality.
Over the last few decades, Vietnam has made remarkable progress in reducing poverty. The percentage of people living in poverty dropped from almost 60% in the 1990s to less than 3% today. Vietnam’s growth rate has averaged 6.4% per year for the last decade, but it has begun to slow recently. In 2014, GDP growth was 6 %, projected to flatten in 2015 and start to pick up in 2016. Vietnam has managed to improve macroeconomic stability, with headline inflation falling from a peak of 23% in August 2011 to about 4.1% for 2014.
The Socio-Economic Development Strategy (SEDS)
2011-2020 gives attention to structural reforms, environmental sustainability, social equity, and emerging issues of macroeconomic stability. It defines three "breakthrough areas": (i) promoting human resources/skills development (particularly skills for modern industry and innovation), (ii) improving market institutions, and (iii) infrastructure development
A five-year Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP 2011-2015) elaborated objectives for the first five years of the SEDS and identifies the specific measures and resources that are needed to achieve high quality and sustainable economic growth, including: the need to restructure theeconomy to increase the share of high value-adding economic activities; improve the living standards of ethnic minority populations; strengthen environmental protection; and mitigate and prevent the adverse impacts of climate change. The country has completed review of this 5 year plan and is preparing the next 5 year plan, 2016 – 2020 to achieve the targets set in the 10-year strategy.