Socio-economic Development in Vietnam over 30 Years Innovation in

Angle of Philosophy

Do Ngoc Hanh

Faculty of philosophy, University of Politics, Ministry of National Defense, Hanoi, Vietnam

Keywords: Development, Economy, Society, Vietnam, Philosophy.

Abstract: In the article the author focuses on analyzing “transformation”, socioeconomic breakthroughs in Vietnam for

over 30 years of innovation (1986 - 2020). In the philosophical angle to make objective & specific reviews &

assessments on the “historic” achievements in Vietnam’s socio-economy with 2 aspects: achievements and

restriction. Thence, legitimate and scientific guidelines & viewpoints for socioeconomic development by the

Communist Party, State, and Government of Vietnam have been further asserted. These are the scientific

foundations for Vietnam to apply them to the sustainable social development in the context of strong impacts

by the Industry 4.0; especially the great impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on Vietnam and the world.

1 INTRODUCTION

Natures in substances in socioeconomic structures

have been explained in theories for socioeconomic

development in the world so that social purposes and

objectives will be better conducted. In the

philosophical angle, development means the

tendency of maneuver of things, from the low level

upward, from simplicity toward complexity; and from

incompleteness to more completeness, etc.,

Development is the tendency of all things and

phenomena; however, each thing and phenomenon

goes through different development process.

Accordingly, Vietnam’s socioeconomic development

for over 30 years of innovation has been under

impacts by many factors, including both objective

conditions and subjective factors. That is the signal of

variety and diversification in Vietnam’s current

socioeconomic development.

2 MATERIALS AND RESEARCH

METHODS

The author has utilized the sources of research-related

articles published in both local and foreign magazines

& journals; assessments by international

organizations, and scientists in the world, etc., by

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5166-5537

applying historical, logical, assessing, statistical,

analyzing, inductive, deductive, and surveying

methods to address put - forward issues.

3 RESEARCH RESULTS

3.1 Breakthrough Ideology in

Switching the Extensive Economic

Development into the Intensive One

For over 30 years of innovation since 1986, Vietnam

has made crucial achievements in the career for the

national industrialization and modernization. From a

backward agricultural economy with 90% of the

population doing the agricultural cultivation,

Vietnam has built up the material - technical facilities

and socioeconomic infrastructure to gradually meet

the career of industrialization, modernization & form

or shape an environment to attract social resources for

development: “Our country has never had the

structure, potentiality, position and international

reputation today” (Phuc, 2020).

For the economic growth, for over 30 years of

innovation, Vietnam’s economy has grasped much

higher growth rate compared with that in before the

age of innovation and has been ranked in the group

with high growth rates in the world. The scale of the

Hanh, D.

Socio-economic Development in Vietnam over 30 Years Innovation in Angle of Philosophy.

DOI: 10.5220/0010592404610466

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure (ISSDRI 2021), pages 461-466

ISBN: 978-989-758-519-7

461

economy has rapidly and highly increased with the

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2014 reaching

about USD 184 billion. Since 2008, the average GDP

per capital has reached over USD 2,900. Vietnam has

been excluded from the group of developing countries

with low incomes to participate in the group of

developed countries with average incomes (Hue,

2016).

During the 2011 – 2013 stage alone, Vietnam’s

growth model had been transformed from extensivity

into intensivity with more attention to the growth

quality. The Incremental Capital Output Ratio

(ICOR) has been improved. It declined from 6.9%

during the 2006 – 2010 stage down to 6.5% during

the 2011 – 2015 stage. The growth quality has been

improved to some extents while the level of

production technologies has been partially improved;

the ratio of the process industry in the industrial

production value has tended to increase and the ratio

of the exploring industry has gradually declined, etc.,

Thanks to the breakthrough ideology in the

market economy’s development, the International

economic integration together with efforts for

innovation over the past time, they have helped the

investment environment in Vietnam continuously

improve and attracted more and more investment

capital for development. The total social investment

as well as the proportion of social investment capital

in comparison with GDP have constantly increased

and maintained at high levels, of which those during

the 2004-2009 period increased by over 40% and

Vietnam was in the list of the highest investment

countries in the world.

Vietnam’s economic structure has initially

transformed toward the modern direction when

agricultural areas decrease and those for services &

industries increase; the economic structure and

components continue moving toward the direction of

potential uphold by economic sectors and in

combination of several ownership models; the laborer

structure has experienced positive transformation

attached with the process of economic and exported

goods structures when moving toward the gradual

increases of industrial product rates & simultaneously

the gradual decreases of agricultural products and raw

materials, etc.,

Positive roles of economic entities in Vietnam

have also been realized for over 30 years of

innovation. The Government economy has gradually

& better upheld its core roles; State-owned corporate

system has been gradually re-structured and equitized

in line with the Corporate Law and its number has

remarkably declined. The collective economy has

initially been innovated. The number of private

enterprises has increased drastically, gradually

enhancing their business efficiency, addressing the

employment, and further & further made

contributions to GDP. The Economy with Foreign

Direct (FDI) has been encouraged for development

and made crucial contributions to the socioeconomic

development, employment, and exports, etc.,

Vietnam has gradually formed full, sufficient, and

synchronous market factors and market types with

throughout operation in the attachment with the

regional and international markets. The goods and

service market has gained the development and

accomplishment in terms of scales. During over the

past 15 years (2005 - 2020), the average growth rate

of the retailing commerce has always been 2 - 3 times

higher than the average growth speed of GDP in the

same period.

The financial and monetary markets in Vietnam

develop rather strongly and actively now; the stock

market has initially been formed, making

contributions to diversifying investment capital

sources; the insurance market has made positive

contributions to stabilizing production and

inhabitants’ lives; the currency rate, prices of foreign

currencies, and gold have been basically stabilized;

the real estate market has gained certain development

with rather synchronous technical & social

infrastructure systems that have been making

contributions to urbanization and the economic

structure transformation toward industrialization,

modernization, and boost-up of the country’s

socioeconomic development; the labor market has

been formed with quite profuse supply of laborers

from 15 years old plus. The number of laborers has

increased from 50.51 million (at the end of 2010) to

53.65 million (at the end of 2013) and 55.8 million (at

the end of 2019). 2019 was the first year in which the

laborer rates in Vietnam’s agricultural, forestry, and

aquiculture fields decreased at the 2nd ranking after

the service sector (Anh, 2020).

At the Vietnam Reform and Development Forum

organized at the end of 2018 in Hanoi, Mr. Ousmane

Dinone, National Director of World Bank in Vietnam

stated that Vietnam had gained outstanding

socioeconomic achievements. During over the past 30

years, the economy has achieved an average annual

growth at almost 7%, thence, the average income per

capita has increased 5 folds. According to him,

Vietnam’s development was with the coverage and

the rate of poor households had decreased under 7%

compared with that of 60% at the end of 1980s. He

assessed Vietnam was a remarkably developing

export country.

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However, over the past 30 years, the economy has

still extensively developed but slowly transformed

into the intensive development. The legal,

mechanism, and policy system hasn’t been

accomplished or synchronized. Thus, its quality

hasn’t got high; the legal propaganda, dissemination,

and enforcement work with assurance for disciplines

has remained limited; the economic structure has

been slowly transformed; the right of freedom to do

business hasn’t been fully respected; the business

environment hasn’t really assured for fair & healthy

competition among enterprises of all economic

sectors. Enterprises have still encountered many

queries and troubles when entering, operating, and

withdrawing from the market; prices of some

essential goods and services haven't really complied

with principles and rules in the market economy;

corporate administration has remained poor so it

hasn’t caught up with the international standards or

met the needs in the market economy, etc.,

State-owned enterprises, including many

economic groups and corporates haven't fully shown

their roles as the core forces for the government

economy; their production and business outcomes

have been low, causing wastes and losses; the

collective economy has suffered from long-lasting

and poor issues. Most of private enterprises have been

in a small scale while FDI ones haven't met the

objectives of technology transfer, especially high

technologies, source technologies, and progressive

management levels; etc., the macro-economy hasn’t

been firmly stabilized; the independence and self-

reliance of the economy haven't got high yet but the

economy has remained much dependent on some

external markets.

3.2 Dialectics for Socioeconomic

Development in Vietnam

As the objective inevitability and the impressive

economic development, Vietnam experiences fast

changes in the population and social structures.

Vietnam’s population from 60 million in 1986

increased up to about 97 million in 2018 and it is

estimated to increase to 120 million by the year 2050.

At present, 70% of the population is under the age of

35 with an average longevity of over 76 years old,

higher than that in such countries with similar

incomes in the region. The mid social class is forming

– accounting for 13% of the population and estimated

to increase to 26% in 2026.

Human Capital Index (HCI) of Vietnam ranks at

the 48th place out of 157 nations and territories while

ranking at the 2nd place in ASEAN, behind Singapore

only. One Vietnamese baby born at the moment will

gain a productivity of 67% compared with a peer who

is given with full study and health care when the baby

grows up. Vietnam is a country with the highest HCI

among the nations with average incomes. The

enhancement of the labor force’s levels to create jobs

with higher productivity in a large scale in the future

is also attached with special importance by Vietnam

(Paquet, 2004).

General education in Vietnam is rather good. The

past 30 years of innovation have been an important

historical stage in the development career of Vietnam;

in that context, Vietnam’s education has made many

changes and development both in the scale and

quality. The movements of educational generalization

from the primary level to the high school one have

been continuously deployed and made certain

achievements. Vietnam has accomplished the

primary educational generalization in the year 2000;

the primary educational generalization at right ages at

the level I in 2004; and the secondary educational

generalization in 2010. The educational and training

quality has been improved with the new development

steps. One of the demonstrations for this lies in the

hallmark by Vietnam’s students in the world’s

intellectual playground. They have made brilliant

achievements at regional and international Olympic

contests, especially during the 4 years (2016 - 2020),

100% of the Vietnamese participants got prizes.

During the 2000-2015 period, Vietnamese students

gained 101 golden medals, 169 silver medals, 174

bronze medals, and 43 Certificates of Merits.

Vietnam grasped impressive results in the Program of

International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2012 and

2015, thence, Vietnamese students’ achievements

further exceeded those of students in many OECD

nations.

The medical field has also made much of great

progression when the living standards have been

further and further improved. According to the

assessment by United Nations Development Program

(UNDP), Vietnam is listed as one of the countries

with outstanding medical achievements compared

with GDP. From 1986 until 2017, the death rate in

infants had decreased from 35.6% down to 1.7% (out

of 1,000 infants). The average longevity had

increased from 70.5 to 76.3 years old from 1990 to

2016. The National Health Care Coverage Index

stood at 73% - higher than the average rate in the

region and the world, 87% of the population had

gained medical insurance. The medical sector had

gained such many outstanding achievements as the

whole population medical insurance,

accomplishment of MDGs, minimization for

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463

hospitals, and Vietnam was voted as a member in

WHO’s Executive Board, etc., For the prevention and

fight against Covid-10, the Doctor Kidong Park,

Chief Representative to WHO in Vietnam greatly

appreciated Vietnam: “We are very impressed by

what the Government, Ministry of Health, and the

locality have done over the past days”. According to

him, Vietnam’s medical surveillance system has

effectively operated so cases of diseases have been

punctually and timely detected. After the first cases

were found in Da Nang (July 2020), Vietnam’s

epidemic preventive and fighting system quickly

reacted to the cases and synchronous measures of

distancing, supervision, trace-follow, zoning to

eliminate the epidemic had been deployed.

Representatives to WHO, international organizations,

and experts also greatly appreciated the provision of

information on the epidemic happenings publically,

transparently, and punctually by Vietnam and thought

that this assures for strengthening the people’s trust

for Vietnam’s epidemic prevention and fights.

For over the past 30 years, the supply of basic

service had experienced many positive changes. The

access of the people to the infrastructure had been

remarkably improved. By 2016, 99% of the

population could use the electric lightning compared

with the rate of 14% in 1993. The rate of people

accessing to rural clean water had been improved,

increasing from 17% in 1993 to 70% in 2016 while

that in cities was over 95%.

However, Vietnam’s fast growth and

industrialization have caused many negative impacts

on the environment and natural resources. The total

consumption of electricity has increased three folds

during the last 10 years. With more dependence on

fossil fuels, the energy sector emits almost 2/3 of the

total greenhouse gas emission nationwide. The need

for water use increases more and more while its

capacity remains at a low rate, reaching 12%

compared with the world’s standards. The

unsustainable exploration of natural resources like

sand, seafood, and wood may cause negative

influences on long-term potentials for development.

In addition, the majority of the population and

Vietnam’s economy are both vulnerable to effects of

the climate change.

Strong urbanization, economic, and population

growth pose bigger and bigger challenges for waste

management and pollution treatment. Vietnam’s

waste amount is estimated to increase double in less

than 15 years’ time. Besides, there is the issue related

to sea waste. According to the estimates, 90% of the

sea plastic waste globally is disposed from 10 rivers,

including Mekong River. Vietnam is also one of the

10 nations in the world hidden the most severely by

the air pollution. The water source pollution is

causing severe aftermaths to the productivity of

significant industries and the people’s health.

The Government of Vietnam is making efforts to

minimize the impacts of the growth on the

environment and to effectively adapt to the climate

change. Strategies and plans to boost up the green

development and sustainable exploration of natural

resources have been applied. The Government has

also applied measures to minimize and adapt to the

climate change, cope with the harsh weather, and

natural calamities through the deployment of the

program called the Nationally Determined

Contributions (NDCs).

In addition, Vietnam’s population has got aging

quickly; by the year 2050, the group of people over

65 years old will increase by 2.5 times. The gap in the

living standards among localities, especially in the

ethnic minority groups, will get wider and wider. The

gender gap at birth remains high and gets wider and

wider (115 in the year 2018), which shows the

situation of gender discrimination still exists.

3.3 Solutions to Address Imposed

Issues

Firstly, the State and authorities at all levels in

Vietnam need to check and review the promulgated

regimes and policies. If any regimes or policies aren't

relevant any more but they hinder the development of

economic facilities and enterprises, they should be

eliminated because all management activities by the

State and the authorities at all levels are to form,

create favorable conditions for the economic facilities

and enterprises to freely uphold their creativity in

production – business activities.

Secondly, Vietnam need to encourage both

domestic and foreign investors to invest in hi-tech

sectors, manufacturing industry, new material

industry and support small and medium-sized

corporate to invest in innovating technologies, create

motivations for new development & trigger the

economic development, enhancement of productivity

& product quality, and competitiveness in the local,

international, and regional markets. Simultaneously,

many added values should be brought about to

increase TFP’s contribution ratio to the GDP growth.

High technologies should be specially applied to the

agricultural production as well as the agricultural,

forestry, and aquatic processing industries.

Thirdly, to narrow down the gap among areas and

territories between the plains and mountainous

midlands; between cities and rural areas, the State

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needs to work out relevant management policies and

regimes to attract local and foreign investors to invest

in distant & remote areas, those areas with poor

technical infrastructure yet they will still get profits at

least the same as profits when investing in places near

urban areas with more favorable conditions. When

industrial works are formed, they will attract many

laborers and create much employment for the people,

bring about incomes for the localities whereas urban

clusters will be formed to gradually improve the

residents’ material & spiritual life in the area, and

gradually narrow the gap with the plains. At the same

time, the gap of income unfairness among the

residential groups will be narrowed down. That is also

one of the contetnts for the economic growth together

with realizing the social progress and fairness &

protecting the current environment in Vietnam.

Fourthly, the State needs to holistically change

teaching and learning syllabus, contents, and methods

to attach the teaching & learning with the maneuver

of the socioeconomic development. The guideline is

to teach students to know how to become good

people, how to work, and cut down academic and

theoretical things. However, the State also need to

invest in education and effectively enforce the

educational socialization yet still being able to

support and help the po children to go to school. The

State should study and delete tuition fees for children

learning at kindergartens, primary, and secondary

schools nationwide so that all children can go to

school. Going to school isn't only their rights but also

their obligations. These will gradually realize the

objective of a society with learning and studying for

the whole life. Fifthly, the State and

Government of Vietnam need to legitimately invest in

the preventive health care, conduct “prevention is

better than cure”, invest in communal and district

health care to lessen pressure for higher routes and

avoid wastes of unfully used technical & material

facilities in communal and district routes (Lan, 2019).

4 DISCUSSION OF THE

RESULTS

Vietnam’s breakthrough development has recently

been acknowledged in the international

communication. Bloomberg asserts: Vietnam is

transforming strongly, from a country that exported

crude oil, coffee, and footwear into a production

center that attracts globally big groups.

The Financial Times (the UK) quotes the

impressive growth figures in many fields that show

Vietnam’s rapid development. In 2017, Vietnam led

the South East Asia region when being able to attract

USD 6 billion 2017 in the IPO market. Ho Chi Minh

City’s stock market becomes one of the world top

stock markets after VN-Index increases by 17%,

exceeding other big markets in Asia. Vietnam has

also exceeded Indonesia to become a big exporting

country although Vietnam’s market accounts for 1/5

of Indonesia’s economy while the author of an article

published in Brookings Institution’s specialized page

(the USA) called the S-shaped country with the

phrase “Vietnam’s magical thing” after having

highlighted Vietnam’s achievements in the context of

the sluggish economic & commercial situations. The

author assessed “Vietnam’s experience is not only

useful for developing countries but also developed

ones”. According to the author, crucial factors for

Vietnam to have grasped these achievements, besides

such objective conditions as young labor source and

political stability, etc., like legitimate decisive

policies on global economic integration, national

liberalization, and investment in human resource, and

infrastructure must be presented.

Those above-mentioned assessments are with

complete basis when Vietnam’s economy – society

continues their prosperity and remarkable

achievements, in which the growth rate of GDP in

2018 reached 7.08% - the highest level over the last

decade while the exports gained 238 USD billion and

the export plus reached a recording amount of USD

7.2 billion. The scale of the economy increased so

strongly, in 2018, with the estimated amount of over

USD 240 billion, 1.3 times higher than that of 2015

(Phong, 2019).

The independence and self-reliance of Vietnam’s

economy have been gradually enhanced. The

successful enforcement of dual objectives for growth

& inflation restriction, etc., has paved paths for better

implementation of the tasks to assure for social

welfare, social order security, and safety. Those

positive results have created spreading effects,

strengthened the trust in the people, both local and

foreign strategic investors.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The 4th Industry (4.0) has been basically changed the

humankind’s civilized production. This Revolution

takes place at a faster speed, in a broader scope, from

production to life, from individuals’ activities to

organizations, enterprises, ministries, sectors, and

even the government, strongly affecting all aspects of

the socioeconomic life, especially in the fields of

Socio-economic Development in Vietnam over 30 Years Innovation in Angle of Philosophy

465

education - training, HR development, leading to

changes in models and motivating the social

production force’s development. In the philosophical

angle, the Industry 4.0 also creates great challenges to

countries and peoples. To grasp this tendency,

Vietnam enjoys favorable conditions to take full

advantages of jumping at chances and minimizing

imposed difficulties as well as the challenges to

shorten the gap in development, especially the

economic development in countries in the region and

in the world, to successfully realize the objective of

the national industrialization and modernization. The

success for over 30 years of innovation in Vietnam

has enhanced Vietnam’s economic & national

defense potentials, prestige in the international arena

and firmly defended the political security,

independence, soveignty, and the territorial integrity

of the Fatherland, making contributions to realizing

the objective of “Rich people, powerful country,

fairness, democracy, and civilization”.

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