Vietnam

This country level trade brief summarizes insights from the world trade indicators database as well as analyzes national impacts and responses to the food crisis and... Show More + global recession. The trade at a glance tables for Vietnam provide a snapshot of key aspects of trade policy and performance. Show Less -

The Status of Projects in Execution (SOPE) report for FY09 provides information on all International Bank and Rural Development (IBRD)/International Development Association... Show More + (IDA) projects that were active on June 30, 2009. The report is intended to bridge the gap in information available to the public between the project appraisal document, disclosed after the Bank approves a project, and the implementation completion report, disclosed after the project closes. In addition to the project progress description, the FY09 SOPE report contains project level comparisons of disbursement estimates and actual disbursements, and a table showing the loan/credit/grant amount and disbursements to date for all active projects. Show Less -

Since 1992, Vietnam has conducted six household living standards surveys (VLSS and VHLSS), which have been extensively used in poverty analysis and monitoring. The first... Show More + of these surveys, in 1992-93 collected detailed price information in the sampled enumeration areas (EAs) as part of the community questionnaire. These community market prices were an important source of information, either solely or in conjunction with household-unit values (expenditures divided by quantities, which are available for foods in the VHLSS), on regional differences in prices and the cost of living. Estimates of these regional differences are needed especially for deflating nominal expenditures prior to those expenditures being compared with a national poverty line (or equivalently, for converting a national poverty line into regional prices to compare with nominal expenditures). The implementation of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data collection has also undergone substantial changes over the last decade in Vietnam. The number of goods and services in the market basket has increased substantially, to 496 currently, of which 82 are designed to have their prices surveyed every 10 days. But for almost all of the items in the current market basket, the detailed specification, category and brand, whose price is collected either every 10 days or every month, is selected to suit the peculiarities of consumer demand in each province rather than selected to be consistent across all price collection localities in Vietnam. This situation has not always prevailed; the market basket used from 2000-2005 had ca. 30 items that were nationally consistent (that is, all of the provincial statistical offices were instructed to collect prices for the same detailed specification) with the balance of items being peculiar to each province. But since the beginning of 2006 the choice of detailed specification for all of the items in the market basket has been devolved to the provinces. Note that this lack of comparability across space in the definition of the surveyed goods and services is not necessarily problematic for a temporal index like the CPI, which just requires consistency of the specification over time. Show Less -

The purpose of this Volume 1 report is to explore how development of the gas and
electricity sectors can be better coordinated within this dynamic environment. In... Show More + particular,this report aims to: Briefly outline the gas resources and developments in Vietnam, and describe the current institutional arrangements for the gas sector and how they relate to overall gas and electricity planning; Identify key gas sector issues as they relate to gas and electricity sector planning in general and BOT electricity generation project development, and in particular identify the development and operating risks for a BOT electricity generation project developer and suggest mitigation measures for these risks ;Suggest mechanisms to improve gas and electricity planning coordination. Present a case study that illustrates some of the gas and electricity planning issues and how these would be addressed if the suggested planning changes were implemented. This assignment has been undertaken during a period of unprecedented change in Vietnam. The electricity sector is part way through the complex process of introducing a market. In global world energy markets, oil prices have risen to USD140/bbl and then dropped to below USD50/bbl in less than a year. In global financial markets, the world is
facing the deepest recession in decades, the banking sector is in turmoil, and the
availability of credit has shrunk dramatically. It is difficult for any planning process to cope with these massive worldwide shifts and fully capture the expected economic impact on a rapidly growing economy such as Vietnam. As a result of these events, some data such as electricity load forecasts and the least-cost ranking of generating plant would likely differ if they were updated. Nonetheless, the fundamental observations and recommendations of this report remain relevant despite (or perhaps because of) the volatility of international markets. And while recent economic volatility complicates planning, it makes it all the more necessary. Show Less -

Successive policies of the Government of Vietnam for economic reform and modernization have helped Vietnam to emerge as one of the world's fastest growing economies.... Show More + The report provides continued recommendations on improving land policies to ensure efficiency of their practical implementation and to target at both economic development and social sustainability. Policies with regard to voluntary benefits sharing, promoting the participation of communities and social organizations, strengthening the dialogue between the government and the people, creating real consensus across parties related to investment projects, enhancing inspection works by upper level administrative authorities over their lower level ones are analyzed and specifically recommended in this policy note. The policy note includes six chapters: chapter one, is the general introduction of this document; chapter two, focuses on analyzing the prevailing land legislation system for land conversion and the process of land legislation construction to determine its insufficiency issues; chapter three, mainly analyzes the practical implementation of land conversion in Vietnam, based on the analyses of opinions from provincial leaders, investors and affected people; chapter four, carries out analyses of the international and domestic experiences on land acquisition/conversion measures to find the possibilities of application to Vietnam; and chapter five, suggests land policies, legal regulations, and implementation procedures to continuously reform the land acquisition/conversion measures in Vietnam. The policy note ends with the last chapter, which recommends some issues for further studies in the World Bank Vietnam study program on land policies improvement in the upcoming years. Show Less -

Geological and mineral surveys indicate that although Vietnam is a minerals rich country, it does not presently appear on common lists of countries that are considered... Show More + attractive for mining investment by the international community. Before 1990, most mineral resources, mainly coal and metals, were not properly taken into account. The first mineral law was promulgated in 1996. In 2005, to comply with World Trade Organization (WTO) accession requirements, the law was amended and an implementing decree was issued. Although the minerals law contain many provisions in common with similar laws in other countries that have thriving mineral industries, a number of inconsistencies and constraints remain that need to be addressed. Also, as a consequence of recently increased in Vietnam's mining industry is now in rapid decline. In this business issues bulletin, consolidate recent comments on the present mineral law from experts, lawyers, business associations and government officials in order to address significant hurdles, both legislative and otherwise, to overcome to create a regulatory environment that will encourage investment y quality investors. The analysis and discussion focus on critical issues to improve the present minerals law, including security of tenure, stability of fiscal/investment conditions, and clarity of administrative/permitting procedures and governmental authority. Show Less -

The study starts with a classification of the enterprises depending on their participation to the Vietnam social security. Among the enterprises that contribute, one... Show More + striking feature is that on average the share in the wage bill of the contributions paid to the Vietnam social security is much lower than the contribution rate established in the law. Even if the enterprises that do not register their employees are excluded from the calculation, the average ratio is of 7.6 percent while the legal rate was in 2006 equal to 23 percent. The study, consequently, examine this issue before investigating the characteristics of the enterprises that do not register their employees. The paper shows that this low ratio is due to a wide practice by enterprises of paying contributions on lower wages than current wages. The paper investigates, furthermore, who benefit from the practice of avoiding registration and from the practice of under-reporting wages to social security. The results indicate strong evidence that employees in enterprises that are not registered to social security and in enterprises that under report wage receive higher net wages. Show Less -

This report and the associated appendices and Policy Summary represent the principle documented outputs of a 15 month long process of analysis and consultation. The... Show More + issue being discussed, the social and environmental consequences of hydropower development, is inherently complex and often controversial, in Viet Nam as elsewhere. The nature of this Study, which was looking at hydropower within the context of a long-term strategic national plan, compounds the level of complexity and uncertainty. The goal of the strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is to optimize the contribution of sustainable hydropower to national development over the period up to 2025 in Viet Nam. The execution of the SEA followed six phases: (i) scoping, (ii) baseline, (iii) scenarios and alternatives, (iv) risk and impact assessment, (v) weighting and trade-offs analysis and (vi) reporting, including recommendations. The execution of the SEA in this study demonstrates the potential of SEA as a key part of the strategic planning framework for the hydropower sector. The SEA has provided a mechanism to assess and understand the full range of potential risks associated with hydropower for people and the environment, both within the immediate vicinity of hydropower construction and beyond. It also provides a mechanism for identifying and assessing the most effective mitigation and compensation actions, including actions to reduce risks and to fully compensate for negative impacts where they do occur. The SEA provides a framework for the internalization of the costs of social and environmental impacts and mitigation measures into the assessment of the economic feasibility of hydropower schemes. Show Less -

During the first part of the year, Vietnam was confronted with the overheating created by massive capital inflows, resulting in accelerating inflation, a ballooning... Show More + trade deficit, a real estate bubble and many investments of dubious quality. A determined reaction by the government, especially since March 2008, was successful at stabilizing the economy. In spite of surging world prices of food and oil, a tight monetary policy and some measure of fiscal restrain burst the real estate bubble, gradually brought down the inflation rate and reduced the trade deficit to manageable levels. In the process, economic activity was also affected, with the first half of 2008 seeing the worst growth performance in years. The overall economic situation was fragile around May, when markets were nervous about a possible balance of payment crisis, but it gradually became apparent that the stabilization package was working. With still booming approvals for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects, Vietnam seemed ready to renew with rapid economic growth. That was when the second crisis hit. In the second half of 2008, financial difficulties in a risky segment of the mortgage market in the United States developed into a global financial crisis of unprecedented proportions. Fear paralyzed activity in industrial countries, bringing credit to a halt and even threatening to derail international trade. Economic forecasts for industrial countries in 2009 are revised often, and the adjustment is always downwards. How much this global turmoil will affect Vietnam is still unclear. Its banking sector has not been directly affected, because its does not hold the financial products at the center of the current crisis, and is only marginally owned by international banks which could be exposed to such products. But the growth of Vietnamese exports is bound to slow down, approvals of new FDI projects will decrease dramatically, and even FDI disbursements on already approved projects may dwindle. Together with the fallout from the burst of the real estate bubble, this will create difficulties for many enterprises, resulting in a higher proportion of non-performing loans (NPLs) and affecting the banking sector indirectly. The rapid rate at which poverty had been falling in Vietnam will also be reduced. An effort to support economic growth amidst the global turbulence needs to be accompanied by determined reforms, so that it does not lead to the asset price bubbles and dubious investments of the first part of the year. Show Less -

Traditionally both national and regional development planning in Vietnam has been driven by 'top-down' Central Government social and economic targets based on limited... Show More + analytical investigation. However, with the advent of the free market economy in Vietnam since the late 1980s, vigorous global economic competitiveness and Vietnam's membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO), changes in national policy in Vietnam have now required a more decentralized approach to development planning based on the preparation of integrated regional development strategies. This change in policy direction requires the application of new and innovative approaches to development planning underpinned by 'best practice' tools and techniques. This new way of planning will more effectively manage current and future investment opportunities at the provincial and regional levels in Vietnam. This report is the culmination of the findings and recommendations of the project over this three month period noting that the training program itself involved a total of 45 participants from relevant provincial government and district level authorities in Quang Nam Province (QNP). Appendix two is a list of participants. It is emphasized that the method of training adopted in this technical assistance project was very interactive, it required individual and group tasks to be completed by participants based on the organization of participants into five teams, nomination of a team leader for each team and regular presentations of team activities to the whole group throughout the training program. The program ran for a total of seven days (7-9 October 2008 and 4-6 November 2008) with a 'report back' workshop session of all participants and other provincial government officials on 7 November 2008. Show Less -