Vietnam between developmental state and neoliberalism: the case of the industrial sector

Since the mid 1980s Vietnam has launched a thorough programme of economic reforms, with a transition from central planning to a market-based economy. The gradual and pragmatic reform process achieved remarkable results in terms of sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. With entrance into the WTO (in 2007), the country has become an important manufacturing hub and is attracting huge FDI flows, but with a risk of increased dependency from foreign capital and technology and vulnerability to exogenous shocks. This paper suggests that national authorities have so far (and rather successfully) relied on a large state sector to manage economic development but the government has not been able to design and implement coherent industrial strategies.