The UN’s Human Development Report 2005, released in New York on September 9, has praised the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as “an example of a country that has converted high [economic] growth into rapid human development”. The report adds that income poverty in Vietnam “has already been cut in half, falling from 65% in 1990 to 32% in 2000. Child mortality rates have fallen from 58 per 1000 live births (a far lower figure than income would predict) to 42 over the same period. Rapid, broad-based economic growth has contributed to Vietnam’s success. So have investments in human development during the 1980s.” The report contrasts Vietnam with Mexico. “In Mexico export ‘success’ has gone hand in hand with limited progress in human development”. Vietnam, on the other hand, “has succeeded partly because its export success has been built on domestic reforms that have generated economic growth with equity and partly because it has not pursued greater openness through rapid import liberalization.” The report also observed that, “At a lower level of income and a comparable rate of economic growth, Vietnam has now overtaken China on improvement in child mortality”.

From Green Left Weekly, September 21, 2005.
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