Vietnam’s Star Is Dimming
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May 10 (Bloomberg) -- Like other would-be tiger economies,Vietnam faces a trifecta of new threats: a crisis-paralyzedEurope, a faltering America, and a newly spendthrift Japan. Yetthe biggest risk to the nation’s future may be old-fashionednostalgia.
It has been 27 years since Hanoi launched the “Doi Moi”reforms that allowed privately owned companies to participate inthe economy and opened key sectors, such as agriculture. Therapid growth that followed propelled Vietnam toward the realm ofmiddle-income nations, transforming the onetime war zone into acase study for development and poverty reduction. Now, though,Vietnam’s 1986 blueprint for a “socialist-oriented marketeconomy” is looking dated.