Doi Moi

Đổi Mới (pronounced [ɗo᷉i mə̌ːi]; English: Renovation) is the name given to the economic reforms initiated in Vietnam in 1986 with the goal of creating a "socialist-oriented market economy". The term đổi mới itself is a general term with wide use in the Vietnamese language, however the Doi Moi Policy (Chính sách Đổi Mới) refers specifically to these reforms.

1970s

Doi Moi had been a long-standing process, starting with "exploratory changes" in agricultural production experiment in 1967 in North Vietnam, which turned out to be unsuccessful.

1980s

It was de facto a top-down reform program that required a handful of most influential high-ranking political figures of Vietnam in mid-1980s.^[1]

As a result of Doi Moi, privately owned enterprises were permitted in commodity production (and later encouraged) by the Communist Party of Vietnam; furthermore, the push to collectivize the industrial and agricultural sectors of Vietnam, previously the focus of intense efforts by the Communist authorities, was abandoned. Under Đổi Mới state subjects were defined for the first time by the Party as members of households.^[2]

Doi Moi reforms led to the development of what is now referred to as the Socialist-oriented market economy,^[3] where the state plays a decisive role in the economy, but private enterprise and cooperatives play a significant role in commodity production. Đổi mới helped Vietnam establish diplomatic relationships with the capitalist West and East Asia in the 1990s. The Communist Party of Vietnam has reaffirmed its commitment to the socialist economic orientation, and that Doi Moi renovations of the economy are intended to strengthen socialism.^[4]

Before 1988, there were no private enterprises operating in Vietnam, apart from family firms that did not employ wage labor.^[5]

The economic reforms that introduced market forces in Vietnam are likened to modern Chinese economic reform.

Almost overnight the "big bang" economic liberalization transformed a stagnant peasant economy into a vibrant, market-driven, capitalist system.^[6] The apparent and sudden swelling of ranks of petty entrepreneurs produced a boom in local markets and the emergence of 'street front capitalism' in urban areas.

Some sources claim that there was already a shadow market of unregulated enterprises operating in Vietnam before Doi Moi. They were often family oriented commercial and peasant enterprises, financiers, currency traders and smugglers. The informal market provided vital goods and services that sustained Vietnam during its bleak years between 1975 to 1986. Doi Moi, then, was not the beginning, but the turning point in the evolution of the informal sector. The informal sector was not spawned by 1986 Doi Moi policy reform, as some observers have assumed. Instead, the shadow economy helped set the stage for economic reforms by supporting peasant agriculture, fostering the accumulation and productive investment of local capital, creating urban goods and services, maintaining a spirit of entrepreneurship, and proving to the government that an alternative path to national development was possible.

See also

• Five-Year Plans of Vietnam
• Economic history of Vietnam
• Socialist commodity economy
• Socialist-oriented market
• Transition economy
• Socialism with Chinese characteristics
• Privatization in Iran

References

Further reading

• Murray, Geoffrey. Vietnam : Dawn of a New Market. New York : St. Martin's Press, 1997.
• Pham, Minh Chinh, and Vuong, Quan Hoang. Kinh te Viet Nam - Thang tram va Dot pha. Hanoi: NXB Chinh Tri Quoc Gia, 2009.
• Chen, J and Vu, A. Vietnam after the regional economic crisis.
• Vuong, Quan Hoang. Financial Markets in Vietnam's Transition Economy: Facts, Insights, Implications. ISBN 978-3-639-23383-4, VDM-Verlag, Feb. 2010, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany.

External links

• Vietnam : “Doi moi” and the World Crisis
• Vuong, Quan Hoang and Tran, Tri Dung. "The Cultural Dimensions of the Vietnamese Private Entrepreneurship". ICFAI Journal of Entrepreneurship Development, VI(3&4), pp. 54-78, Sept.-Dec. 2009. © ICFAI University Press. (article)