A country of southeast Asia in eastern Indochina of the South China Sea. Ruled by China from 221 B.C. to A.D. 939 and from 1407 to 1428, it was occupied by the French in the 19th century. After the fall of the French garrison at Dien Bien Phu in1954, it was partitioned into North Viet Nam and South Viet Nam. The country was reunited in April 30, 1975 after the end of the Viet Nam War. Hanoi is the capital and Saigon the largest city.

Industries: Food processing, textiles, cement, chemical fertilizers

Chief crops: Rice, rubber, fruits and vegetables, soybeans, coffee, tea, bananas

Minerals: Phosphates, coal, manganese, bauxite, chromate, oil

Crude oil reserves (2000): 500 mln. bbls

Other resources:

Forests: Arable land: 22%

Livestock (2000): cattle: 3.3 mln.; pigs: 14.9 mln.

Fish catch (2002): 1.1 mln. metric tons

Electricity prod. (2002): 9 bln. kWh.

Labor force: 65% agric.; 35% ind. and services

Finance

Monetary unit: Dong (June. 2002: 15,000 = $1 US)

Gross national product (1993): $72 bln.*

Per capital GNP: $1,000

Imports (1993): $3.1 bln.; partners: Singapore 28%, Japan 14%

Exports (1993): $2.6 bln.; partners: Japan 34%, Singapore 18%

Tourism (1992): $80 mln.

Labor:

The civilian labor force of Viet Nam in the early 1990s was estimated at nearly 33 million people. The largest labor federation is the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labor, which has a membership of about 3.8 million. Other labor organizations include the Viet Nam Agricultural and Food Industry Trade Union, with about 550,000 members.

The reunification of the country seriously affected the economic structure of Viet Nam in terms of the composition of the labor force. The ethnic Chinese who left Viet Nam were part of the cadre of trained administrators. Many of the workers in the south who fled or were sent to reeducation camps and collective farms had been part of the management of industries and businesses. Inexperienced workers were then placed in positions of authority, and as a result productivity dropped.

Agriculture:

The leading sector of the Vietnamese economy is agriculture, which, with fishing and forestry, employs 73 percent of the labor force. The government has stimulated agricultural production through the removal of price controls and a series of reforms that gives farmers both long-term land leases and the right to keep profits from surplus production. In the early 1990s Viet Nam, which once imported rice, became the world's third largest exporter of the crop. The country's principal crops in the early 1990s (with annual output in metric tons) included rice, the staple food, 21.5 million; cassava, 3 million; sweet potatoes, 2.1 million; and sugarcane, 5.9 million. Cash crops included coffee, 65,000; tea, 35,000; soybeans, 87,000; and natural rubber, 65,000. Livestock included 12.1 million pigs, 3.1 million cattle, and 110 million poultry.

Although forests cover about 40 percent of Viet Nam's total land area, the growth of commercial forestry has been hindered by a lack of transportation facilities, as well as by the mixture of different species of trees, making it uneconomical to harvest a single species. Teak and bamboo are predominant. Most of the 29.5 million cu m (1.04 billion cu ft) of round wood harvested annually in the early 1990s was used for fuel. In an attempt to preserve remaining forests, a ban on the export of logs and timber was imposed in 1992.

Viet Nam's extensive coastline and numerous streams are rich fishing sites. Most fish are taken from the South China Sea. Some fish farming has been undertaken in flooded inland areas. About 877,000 metric tons of fish and shellfish (including crabs, shrimp and prawns, and mollusks) were caught annually in the early 1990s, becoming a principal export.

Most mining activities are confined to the northwest, where anthracite coal, phosphate rock, gypsum, tin, zinc, iron, antimony, and chromite are extracted. Coal and apatite, phosphate rock, are extensively mined. In addition, large petroleum and natural gas deposits lie offshore. Petroleum has been extracted since 1975, mostly by a state-owned company. Production, which stood at 11 million barrels annually in the late 1980s, increased to 29 million barrels each year in the early 1990s and accounts for 32 percent of export revenues. The areas holding all of the petroleum and natural gas reserves are also claimed by China.

The major Vietnamese manufacturing plants, concentrated in the north, have been almost totally restored after receiving heavy bombing damage during the war. Privatization of state enterprises has been under way since the late 1980s. Industries dominating Viet Nam's economy manufacture paper, cement, textiles, food products, fertilizers, and electronics.

Viet Nam has not yet fully utilized its considerable hydroelectric power potential, although a facility with a generating capacity of 2000 kilowatts opened in Hoax Binh in 1989. Coal-powered plants remain the primary source of electricity. In the early 1990s some 9 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were generated annually.

Following the reunification of Viet Nam, the piastre, the currency of the south, was abolished. The new dong is now the national monetary unit; the new dong is divided into 100 xu (10,858 new dong equal U.S.$1; 1994). The State Bank of Viet Nam (1951), headquartered in Hanoi, operated the only banking system within the country until 1990, when the government established four independent commercial banks and allowed foreign banks to operate. The Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam is authorized to handle foreign currencies.

The industrialized north relies on the south for much of its agricultural needs, and since the dismantling of the free-market economy in the south, the north has provided manufactured goods for the south. Viet Nam's exports include petroleum, unprocessed agricultural and marine products (including rice), coal, clothing, footwear, ceramics, gemstones, and silk. Exports were valued at $2.6 billion annually in the early 1990s. Imports, dominated by petroleum products, steel products, railroad equipment, chemicals, medicines, raw cotton, fertilizer, and grain, were valued at $3.1 billion. Principal trading partners for exports were Singapore, Hong Kong, France, Japan, and South Korea; chief partners for imports were Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

During the late 1980s Viet Nam began to move toward integration with the world economy. In the late 1980s and early 1990s the country had reached cooperative agreements with several countries, including former adversaries Japan and France. In 1993 the United States had lifted its veto of International Monetary Fund assistance. In February 1994 the United States ended a trade embargo that had been imposed against North Viet Nam in 1964 and extended to all of Viet Nam on April 30, 1975, after the fall of South Viet Nam. Viet Nam and the United States moved closer to full diplomatic relations with the opening of a liaison office in Hanoi in early 1995. One of the benefits Viet Nam seeks from improved relations with the United States is an increase in tourism, which is growing in importance to the nation's economy. Less than 200,000 people visited the country in 1990; by 1993 that number had grown to 600,000.

The war years left a mark on the transportation system of Viet Nam. Since the end of the conflict, major efforts have been made to link the south and the north. Vehicular transportation, easiest along the coast, employs a network of about 85,000 km (about 53,000 mi) of roads, of which about 10 percent are paved. Railways have about 2835 km (about 1762 mi) of operable track and are concentrated in the north, except for the 1730-km (1075-mi) Hanoi-to-Ho Chi Minh City line. The long coastline of the country and the Mekong and Red rivers, as well as many smaller streams and canals, facilitate inexpensive transportation. The major ports used for international shipping are Hai Phong, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh City. Domestic flights link several of Viet Nam's cities, and Viet Nam Airline operates both internationally and domestically, and Pacific Airlines operates international routes. Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi have international airports. All transport facilities are government controlled.

Telecommunications in Viet Nam are under the control of the government or the Vietnamese Communist party. The Voice of Viet Nam broadcasts from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. There are an estimated 7.1 million radios and 2.8 million televisions throughout the country. Of the five daily newspapers published in Viet Nam, Nhan Dan, the official paper of the Communist party, has the largest circulation (200,000).

The long period of military conflict in Viet Nam seriously disrupted educational progress and cultural programs, especially those remnants that dated from the years of French rule. Curriculum reforms since 1979 have standardized lesson content throughout the country, strengthened socialist educational ideals, and increased the vocational aspects of higher education.

All schools in Viet Nam were nationalized following reunification, and by the mid-1990s nearly 15.5 million pupils were in attendance. Schooling is free and compulsory. Universities in Viet Nam include the University of Hanoi (1956) and the University of Ho Chi Minh City (1977). In 1989 Thang Long College opened in Hanoi, the country's first private college since 1954. About 88 percent of the adult population is literate.

The cultural life of Viet Nam was strongly influenced by that of China until French domination in the 19th century. At that time the traditional culture began to acquire an overlay of Western characteristics. The postwar government expressed its desire to rid Vietnamese life of Western influences.

The Viet Nam Museum of Fine Arts (1966) in Hanoi includes an exhibition of the tools and costumes of more than 60 ethnic groups in Viet Nam. The National Library was established in Hanoi in 1919; a counterpart was founded in Ho Chi Minh City in 1976.

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