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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