[Vertical Future? (Hanoi 2017). Foto Rb]
Published by Oxfam in Vietnam, Hanoi,
Labor-Social Publishing House, 2017. This publication is available online in PDF format.
A note on p. 42 specifies: “This paper was written and coordinated by Nguyen
Tran Lam with contributions from Babeth Ngoc Han Lefur, Nguyen Thi Le
Hoa, Vu Thi Quynh Hoa, Andrew Wells-Dang, Hoang Lan Huong, Mustafa Talpur, Max
Lawson, Kalayaan Pulido-Constantino, Oliver Pearce, Susana Ruiz, Chiara
Mariotti and Deborah Hardoon. Oxfam in Vietnam would like to thank Emma Seery
for editing the paper and Helen Bunting and Sally Bolton for proofreading and
designing. Nguyen Tam Giang translated the report from English into Vietnamese.
Other colleagues who contributed to this paper include: Nguyen Viet Cuong,
Hoang Xuan Thanh, Nguyen Thi Hoa, Nguyen Thi Dieu Linh, Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh,
Pham Thi Le, Vu Hoang Duong, and Nguyen Thu Huong. It is part of a series of papers
written to inform public debate on development and humanitarian policy issues.”
The authors underline
how poverty has been significantly reduced in Vietnam since the new course that
has launched and restructured the economy in 1986 (Đổi Mới, or
Renewal, Change), promoting private business and foreign investment in addition
to state owned companies and services. The Oxfam report states that, over a
population of about eighty-seven million,
“nearly 30 million people have been lifted above the official poverty
line since the 1990s, and the country’s human development index […] has risen
significantly. Vietnam attained lower middle-income country status in 2009, and
has achieved most of the Millennium Development Goals” (p. 70).
Nevertheless, inequality
is a factor at present, and various types of poverty exist.
Due to the
difference between urban and rural development, and the increase in the number
of the very rich, not accompanied by a significant increase in the number of
middle incomes, economic inequality has actually increased:
“In 2012, the Palma
ratio for Vietnam was 1.74, meaning that the richest 10 percent of people had
an income 1.74 times higher than the poorest 40 percent. The gap between the
richest 20 percent and the rest has also been widening since 2004, and the
number of ultra-wealthy individuals is also on the rise. In 2014, there were 210
super-rich individuals (those with more than $30m) in Vietnam, and their
combined wealth was around $20bn - equivalent to 12 percent of the country’s
GDP, or 1/2 GDP of Ho Chi Min City” (p. 7).
Inequality affects
not only the significant gap between the rich and the poor, but also the range
of opportunities available to different layers of the population.
Due to high costs
and necessity for families to provide incomes based on works of most members,
some of the fifty-four ethnic groups that constitute the population of Vietnam,
as well as migrants from the countryside to the cities and a number of other
less prosperous citizens have lower access to higher education. Education would
be one of the channels to mobility
towards higher classes than the class from which the previous generation
started.
There are gender
disparities with men earning on average 33 percent more than women.
Among other forms of
inequality, health could be mentioned. Even though poor families are provided
with health insurance cards, in practice “poor people still have to pay many
other things such as expenses for health consultations and treatment, equipment
and medicines” (p. 8).
The report states
that in Vietnam “the government has made a constitutional commitment to
guarantee equality and non-discrimination for all citizens” (p. 9). A number of
steps in this direction have been taken, yet some problems seem to complicate
the situation. In particular, one should mention corruption and a tax system
that facilitates corporation tax by reducing it whereas VAT and other taxes
have increased, thus affecting private citizens.
The main suggestion
made by OXFAM is that “in order to ensure that the next thirty years see
continued improvement in the lives of the poorest people, the government must
take all forms of inequality into account - income, opportunity and voice
inequality.” (p. 10).
[Roberto Bertoni]
