• Although Vietnam remains officially committed to socialism as its defin

    From David P@21:1/5 to All on Tue Aug 24 23:51:45 2021
    Vietnam is divided into 58 provinces & 5 municipalities,
    covering 331,699 sq km, with a population of over 96 million,
    making it the world's 16th-most populous country.
    Vietnam is a unitary Marxist-Leninist one-party socialist
    republic, one of the two communist states (the other being
    Laos) in Southeast Asia. Although Vietnam remains officially
    committed to socialism as its defining creed, its economic
    policies have grown increasingly capitalist, with The
    Economist characterising its leadership as "ardently
    capitalist communists". Under the constitution, the Communist
    Party of Vietnam (CPV) asserts their role in all branches of
    the country's politics & society. The president is the
    elected head of state & the cmndr-in-chief of the military,
    serving as the chairman of the Council of Supreme Defence &
    Security, & holds the 2nd highest office in Vietnam as well
    as performing executive functions & state appointments &
    setting policy.

    After North & South Vietnam were reunified as a communist
    state under a unitary socialist govt in 1976, the country
    became economically & politically isolated until 1986, when
    the Communist Party initiated a series of economic & political
    reforms that facilitated Vietnamese integration into world
    politics & the global economy. As a result of the successful
    reforms, Vietnam has enjoyed high economic growth rate,
    consistently ranked amongst the fastest growing economies
    of the world.

    Vietnam is a regional power, & is considered a middle power
    in global affairs. Vietnam is a part of several major int'l
    & intergovernmental institutions or groupings including the
    UN, the ASEAN, the APEC, the CPTPP, the Non-Aligned Movement,
    the OIF, the RCEP, & the World Trade Org, & has also assumed
    a seat on the UN Security Council twice. Vietnam was listed
    as a developing country by the UN until 2019, & by the US
    until 2020.

    Corruption in Vietnam, including rampant bribery, is a major
    issue. Surveys of Vietnamese urban citizens rated Vietnam's
    corruption transparency as poor in surveys conducted in 2005
    & 2010, & the bribing of officials, health workers, & civil
    servants was highly prevalent. The practice of red envelope
    payments, normally a practice of informal payment reserved
    for festivities, became common in the health sector when the
    country was attempting to transition to a market economy in
    1986. Anti-corruption measures have been implemented & while
    there have been improvements, control of corruption was still
    rated poorly in 2015–2017. Plans made for anti-corruption
    drive continue for 2021–2025.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam

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