Vietnam

Population Mix: * The population is surpassed only by Indonesia as Southeast Asia's most heavily populated country. However, Vietnam is the region's most ethnically homogenous country with the Vietnamese making up about 90% of the population. * 85% of Vietnam's ethnic-minority population belongs to indigenous groups - the largest of which are Thai and Hmong - who have been settled in the mountainous regions of the country for many centuries. * About 3% of the population is ethnic Chinese living in the urban centers of the South. * With an estimate 2014 population of 90,493,352, it is the 13th largest populated country in the world with a growth rate of 1%. * Population density is 272.4/kmsqr. * Vietnam's median age increased from 18.2 years (1980) to 28.5 years (2010). Its life expectancy increased from 58.9 years in 1980-1985 to74.3 years in 2005-2010. China and Thailand have the highest old-age dependency ratio (11 in 2010) while that of Vietnam is around 9. Current median age is 29.2 years. * Vietnam’s population is rapid aging and is going to be a new challenge.44.8% of the population lies in the 25-54 years age category. * 31% of the total population is urbanized with a rate of change of 3.03%.

Ratio Percentage:
Total dependency ratio: 41.3%
Youth dependency ratio : 31.9%
Elderly dependency ratio: 9.4%
Potential dependency ratio: 10.6(2014 EST.)

Provinces of Vietnam: * Vietnam is divided into 58 provinces and 5 municipalities existing at the same level as provinces. * The provinces are divided into districts, provincial cities, and district-level towns which are subdivided into commune-level towns. * The municipalities are divided into rural districts and urban districts, which are subdivided into wards. * Vietnamese provinces are controlled by a People's Council, elected by the inhabitants. The People's Council appoints a People's Committee, which acts as the executive arm of the provincial government. * Provincial governments are expected to be subordinate to the central government.

Corruption Index:
• Vietnam ranks 119 out of 170 in corruption perception index.
• The current corruption perception score of Vietnam is 31 out of 100.

Country Ranking Score
Thailand 85 38
Vietnam 119 31
India 85 38
Malaysia 50 52

Advancements * Vietnam made technological advances due to their war with the US. * Vietnam's mix of Marxism and capitalism brings economic progress. * Twenty years ago, Vietnam was one of the poorest places in the world. Now it is among the middle-income countries and attracts donors, banking some $5bn a year in subsidies and loans from international agencies and Japan. Its ambition is to join the club of industrial nations by 2020. * It joined the Association of South-east Asian Nations in 1995, then in 1999 signed a trade agreement with the US, enabling trade to take off. In 2007, it joined the World Trade Organization. * Since 2007, Vietnam has been the world's third-most attractive country, after China and India, for foreign direct investment.

Economy * Resources and power: Coal production is the most important sector of the mining industry. International loans for equipment upgrades enabled Vietnam’s coal production to expand rapidly in the early years of the 21st century. A number of offshore oil deposits have been discovered in the South China Sea, mainly off Vietnam’s southern coast. Although these reserves have yet to be exploited fully, they have propelled a rapid increase in crude petroleum production. By the mid-1990s domestic demand for electricity had surpassed Vietnam’s energy output. Production was subsequently boosted from existing gas-fired thermal generators and hydroelectric stations, new hydroelectric plants were constructed, and a power line was completed to connect the country’s northern and southern regions. Over the next decade, electricity production nearly quadrupled. Vietnam’s rural electrification programs have also been highly successful, supplying the great bulk of households with electricity by the early 21st century. * Manufacturing: Following reunification and the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976, the government made a concerted effort rapidly to transform the privately owned, capitalist industry in the south into a state-owned, state-run sector. Many industrial operations there were nationalized or forced to become joint state-private enterprises. For industry as a whole, the productivity of both capital and labor declined, and gross output slumped. Heavy industry—plagued by waste and inefficiency, lack of spare parts and raw materials, energy shortages, and poor quality control—led the decline. Reform measures in the 1980s, which included reducing subsidies to inefficient state-run operations, introducing incentives, and gradually accepting limited market mechanisms, initiated Vietnam’s conversion from a collective to market economy. Light industry registered significant gains, while heavy industry responded more sluggishly but showed some improvement. With encouragement from the government, private enterprise grew, albeit somewhat at the expense of the state sector. Throughout the 1990s the government further implemented an array of successful policies to control inflation, lower interest rates, decrease the budget deficit, and ultimately stimulate production. Food and beverage processing is the largest industrial activity in Vietnam. Seafood is processed for export, while coffee and tea are processed both for export and for domestic consumption. Other beverages and a variety of condiments also are produced in significant quantities. Vietnam has long been a major producer of cement. The chemical industry has been growing, with fertilizer being its most important product. Steel is a major part of Vietnam’s heavy industry. Because of their high prices, cement, fertilizer, and steel are among the greatest contributors to the country’s economic sector. Garments and textiles are of increasing importance; silk production revived in the 1990s after a period of decline. Production of electronic equipment and motorcycles has similarly expanded, and in the early years of the 21st century automobile manufacturing has been Vietnam’s fastest growing industry. Other important manufactures include footwear, tobacco products, paints, soaps, and pharmaceuticals. * Finance: The State Bank of Vietnam, the central bank, issues the national currency, the dong, and oversees the country’s banking system. Known until 1975 as the National Bank of Vietnam. As international investment gradually increased in the 1990s, foreign commercial banks were allowed to establish branch offices in Vietnam. In 2004 branches of foreign and joint-venture banks were allowed to join the Viet Nam Bank Association, and two years later, foreign banks were permitted to offer a full array of banking services. * Trade: The Soviet Union and the communist countries of Eastern Europe came to be Vietnam’s most important trading partners after the war. Vietnam’s move to broaden trade relations as part of its larger program of economic reforms took on added urgency in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the breakup of the Soviet Union and the demise of the communist governments in Eastern Europe. Because trade with these areas was drastically reduced, Vietnam shifted its orientation more heavily toward Asia, and was admitted to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1995. Shortly thereafter, Singapore, along with Japan and China, emerged as Vietnam’s major bidirectional trading partners. South Korea and Taiwan also became significant suppliers of imports. Non-Asian countries figured more prominently as recipients of Vietnamese exports. The United States quickly rose as Vietnam’s primary export destination, following a trade agreement between the two countries in 2001. Other important non-Asian recipients of Vietnamese goods have included Australia, Germany, and France. Vietnam’s aggressive reform measures increased exports and narrowed the trade deficit considerably. However, rapid industrialization fueled by foreign direct investment caused the deficit to begin growing again. In 2001 the country opened its state markets to foreign competitors, and in January 2007 it joined the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although the government maintains some restrictions on foreign exchange and upholds various bans, quotas, and surcharges, its efforts to liberalize its markets have had an overwhelmingly positive effect on the country’s economy. Machinery, petroleum products, iron, steel, garments, and leather account for the bulk of Vietnam’s imports. Most of these products fuel the country’s expanding industrial sector. The majority of Vietnam’s export revenues are generated by crude petroleum, garments, footwear, and seafood, and electronic products are of growing importance. Coffee, once among Vietnam’s primary generators of export revenue, has begun to rebound after a damaging decline in prices at the end of the 20th century. * Labour and taxation: At the beginning of the 21st century, women accounted for about half of the active workforce, and highland ethnic minorities were more likely than the lowland Vietnamese to be unemployed or working in agriculture and forestry. Ethnic Chinese, despite the persecution and exodus of the late 1970s, have capitalized on liberalizing reforms and contacts with the Chinese diaspora to recover an important role in business, commerce, and trade. The government is motivated by its socialist identity to be more rigorous than most developing countries in enforcing workers’ rights.The Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) is the sole legal national trade union, and all unions must affiliate with it. The confederation is a constituent of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, a communist party coalition, and is under the party’s firm control. The president of the VGCL is usually a member of the party central committee. Unions may press the government to enforce laws and regulations as well as to organize strikes, albeit within strict legal limits. Direct action by workers and the formation of alternative unions, however, are forbidden.

Quality Award * TPM excellence awards: Unilever Bestfoods and Elida P/S, Vietnam EPS Toothpaste Plant (Vietnam). * Vietnam Quality Award: Model used, National model (developed from Baldrige).