BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

POVERTY REDUCTION IN VIETNAM: LESSONS FOR BANGLADESH

Author: Munim Kumar Barai

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2007v28n3a3

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the reasons behind Vietnam’s success in reducing poverty, which has come down to 19.5 percent in 2004 from 58.1 percent in 1993. This success is seen as a manifestation of numerous measures including economic, legal and administrative policy reforms under doi moithat pushed the economy onto a higher growth trajectory. The reforms-led economic growth has largely remained pro-poor as could be seen by the distribution of per capita expenditure and income from 1995 to 2004 and the growth elasticity of poverty of 0.76 during 1993-2004, one of the highest among the developing counties. The role of agriculture is all too apparent in getting the poor out of the poverty line. At a diminished size from that of the 1980s and 1990s, agriculture still houses 56 percent of the national workforce and constitutes more than 20 percent of the GDP. Success of Vietnam in reducing poverty seems to have important lessons for a country like Bangladesh for drawing its own policies and strategies to attack poverty so that it can attain the millennium development goals it has set for itself in terms of poverty reduction.