Statistics of Vietnam, Essay Example

The country of Vietnam is considered a third world country located in the region of South East Asia. The country currently ranks at number 158 under the countries of the third world as suggested by the Nations Online Organization. The country has a score of 73.25. Although Vietnam is a third world country, it is considered a developing nation. This would imply that Vietnam is on its way to becoming a fully developed country such as the United States. Vietnam is no longer considered an underdeveloped country such as the many countries in Africa or the Middle East. There are a number of statistics in Vietnam that classify the country as a third world developing nation. Statistics dealing with gross domestic product or (GDP) rates, population, unemployment rates, and HIV infection rates have a bearing on how the nation of Vietnam is ranked in the global economy.

Economically, Vietnam until the middle of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the period of French rule, all villages were oriented to the agriculture. The French, you need the raw materials and a market for the manufactured goods French in order to expand their trade, carried out in Vietnam a development plan with differences between the northern and southern regions of the country. In the south was promoted develop agriculture, while in the North, rich in mineral resources, was going to develop industrially.

The development of the export of coal from the North and rice from the South, and the importation of manufactured goods French, stimulus the internal trade. A commercial dynamic by which change the rice of the South with the coal and the manufactured goods of the north. When the North and South were divided politically in 1954, both areas to have a different economic base, have adopted various economic ideologies: The north Marxist and capitalist south.

During the Second Indochina War (1954-1975), US air strikes in the North, starting in 1965, slowed down the large-scale construction as the work focused on infrastructure repairs which harmed the bombs dropped by the United States. At the end of 1966, the economy of the North was in decline as a result of the conditions of war. The disruptions in the electric power, the destruction of the oil storage facilities, and the shortage of labor led to a slowdown in economic activity. The interruption of transportation routes by us bombing slowed down even more the distribution of raw materials and consumer goods. In the north, more than half of the villages and cities were severely damaged or destroyed while all the electric power stations, railways, streets, bridges as well as the ocean and inland ports were severely damaged. In addition, lose a lot of arable land and hundreds of thousands of cattle.

In 1986, Vietnam formally abandoned the Marxist economic programming and began to introduce market elements as part of a broad economic reform package called Doi Moi. In many ways, this followed the Chinese model and obtained similar results. On the one hand, Vietnam achieved a GDP growth of 8% per annum between 1990 and 1997, and continued to be around 7% during the years 2000 to 2002, thus becoming the second fastest growing economy in the world. Simultaneously, the investments and savings are multiplied. In 2007 the unemployment rate was 4.3 %, on average. Dismissal for lack of work in the state sector and foreign capital companies combined with the effects of the cessation of functions of elements in the militia, worsened the situation of unemployment. However Vietnam in 2008 was one of the countries with the lowest percentage of the population unemployed. This set of data allow us to infer that Vietnam can become a developed country in a short time. In 2007 the economy grew by 8.5 %, which placed Vietnam as one of the fastest-growing economies of the world. The poverty has been reduced quite a bit and is found in less than a 15 %, the population in extreme poverty is situated in a small 2% and is much smaller than the other countries in the area.

Vietnam is still a very poor country, with a GDP PPP 227 USD 200 million (est. 2004).  This means about US$ 2700 per capita. The impressive growth is mainly due to a very low base and a high rate of inflation.

The public’s purchasing power has increased dramatically. The reason lies in the high prices of the properties. In Hanoi, the capital, property prices can be as high as in Tokyo or New York. This has amazed many people because the GDP per capita is about US$ 1000 per year. These prices have also have risen thanks in part to the corruption and bribery on the part of many government officials.

The year 2008, the country of Vietnam held a population of 86,116,560; the density of this population in the same year was 261.3 inhabitants per km².  The official language is Vietnamese, but are also common Chinese, French, English (which is expanding) and many languages of the tribes of the mountains. Life expectancy is 72 years, 94.3 % of the population is literate and the average number of children per woman is 1.89, one of the lowest in the Southeast Asia.

With the prior warning as mentioned in other occasions on the features and limitations of these reports, and its character of estimate, we point out some data in order to allow a better understanding of what we see in the visit to the factories and, through its own country. To the first impressions reflected in previous reports, little more than add in regard to the three main cities of the country that we have now visited: Ho Chi Minh City (former Saigon), Hanoi (the capital) and Haiphong (the third in nº of inhabitants and port of exit to the sea for the area of Hanoi).  Perhaps a new increase in the number of motorcycles whose figure still by placing them in the 3 million in each city, which it seems is still the main means of transport, and for which all the factories have ample parking spaces for their workers. For the large figures of the country may be of interest to the table (referred to 2013, except for those years in which indicated another) that we have already used recently in the reports from China and Bangladesh and that we bring from new to this, correcting some data and updating of China and Vietnam from the trips made this year.

We have also analyzed 3 new rows of regions: which we already in this table to minimum wages and real average wages and then to the evolution of wages in Vietnam by regions. Underlining the indicative nature of all these data, we should not forget the still confused in general and heterogeneous development of these statistics, so that the table is attached is essentially the value of comparison between countries to the extent that each line (unless otherwise noted) are figures from the same source. With the observation in addition to the variations that have been operating over the years among the various currencies in game (Vietnamese Dong, US dollar and €uro), which adds difficulty in comparisons. Some figures on the other hand that in relation to Vietnam confirm the important economic growth of the country in all these years, developing the process initiated in 1986 with the new economic policy and that was expressed and support also, inter alia, in its incorporation into ASEAN in 1995 and to the WTO in 2007.

Vietnam established an unemployment rate of 2.28%in the first half of the year, according to the General Department of Statistics (DGE).  Last year, this index was 1.99 percent, lower than in the respective figures of 2.8 and 2.2 percent in 2010 and 2011. The active population of the country the composed of 47 million 200 thousand persons, an increase of 98 thousand in comparison with the figure recorded three months ago. While there were about 52 million inhabitants of 15 to 24 years with work in the first six months of the year, an annual increase of 0.97 percent. The DGE estimated that the annual numbers of unemployment for 2013 will be 3.85 and 1.57 percent in urban and rural areas, respectively.

Since 1990 the birth rate has been decreasing and currently stands at a 16.47 births per 1000 inhabitants. The mortality rate is at a low 6.18 %, however the infant mortality rate shoots up to a 23.61 /1000. The net migration rate is negative, a -0.39 emigrants/1000. The rate of population growth is 0.99%.  It is estimated that the rate of population growth will be null before the year 2020.

Figures that it is for example that Vietnam, with an increase of the GDP between the 5 and the 6% per annum in the last decade, has exceeded in this time in minimum wage to other countries in the area, such as Cambodia or Laos, which previously had higher paying. The official forecasts in this regard, after already significant increases in recent years (the largest in 2012 -30 % -, and 15% in 2014 and also in 2015), are of a regular increase of the minimum wage in 2017 to reach the 21% from the current, and 55% in 2020.

The Kinh ethnic group represents 87 percent of the population and is the main inhabitant of the cities and the lowlands, leaving the rest of the groups of the predominance of the mountainous areas.

Fifty percent of those who live in the country have less than twenty-five years and the average age of the population is 26.9 years.

In regard to children and young people, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, says that “in the past three decades the opportunities of Vietnamese children to survive and become healthy adults has significantly improved, thanks to the tremendous progress of the vaccination against preventable diseases and to better nutrition”.

The number of girls and boys who go to school has doubled since 1977, which has resulted in the literacy rate for women has increased from 72 percent in which it was in 1972 to the current 90 percent.

According to the statistics, the pandemic of HIV/AIDS in Vietnam tends to decrease during the past five years. New carriers of the virus last year totaled 12 thousand cases, a figure that represented a 60 percent decrease respect to 2007.

AIDS is caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and produces a serious damage to the immune system. Millions of people around the world live together with this evil, even children under the age of 15 year.

The number of people in Vietnam living with HIV as of 2014 is about 250,000. When broken down into age groups, about 5,300 children from the ages of 0 to 14 are living with HIV in Vietnam. Contrastly, adults ages 15 and up living with HIV in Vietnam is an estimated 240,000. Of these adults, around 77,000 of them are women. There are about 11,000 deaths every year in Vietnam due to AIDS.

The Indochinese country currently registers 260 thousand people infected by HIV, including 56 percent control of the situation of their health and 82 thousand 771 patients are treated with antiretroviral (ARV) as of 2013.

In conclusion, the statistics surrounding Vietnam are continuing to make a negative impact on the country, compromising it from becoming a fully developed country. These are the types of challenges that third world countries unfortunately have to deal with. It will take more time and effort from the Vietnamese economy as well as ally countries to continue to push the nation forward and out of the third world. The changes in the value of GDP, employment, population, and industry are all variables that have an impact on the development of Vietnam. If the agriculture industry can expand, then this would open up more jobs for the Vietnamese. The fertility rate simply needs to slow down in order to control the population. The biggest problem with most third world countries is the issue of over-population, or kids being born that cannot be fed due to unfavorable circumstances. The HIV mortality rate also plays a role in this. No child should be born into HIV, which is why parents whom are known HIV positive should have the access to consult with a health professional to seek advice on whether or not their child may contract the disease. All of factors can be attributed to over-population, which needs to be controlled in Vietnam as in most third world countries.

Bibliography

Hoang, Lan Anh, and Brenda SA Yeoh. “Transnational Labour Migration, Debts, and Family Economics in Vietnam.” Transnational Labour Migration, Remittances and the Changing Family in Asia (2015): 283-310.

Tu, Hong-Anh T., et al. “Health economics of rotavirus immunization in Vietnam: Potentials for favorable cost-effectiveness in developing countries.”Vaccine 30.8 (2012): 1521-1528.

Xuan, Vu Ngoc. “Knowledge Management in Changing World-Case Study at American Companies and Lessons for National Economics University, Vietnam.” Asian Journal of Humanities and Social Studies 1.5 (2013).