The Emerging Legal Framework For Private Sector Development In Viet Nam S Transitional Economy

Private (especially foreign) investors find Vietnam's legal framework the most serious impediment to investment. Policy changes to reverse the former command system may be enough to initiate the transition. But without an appropriate legal framework, they will be insufficient for long-term development.A major objective of Vietnam's transition to a market economy has been to reactivate the private sector in a mixed economy. Several new laws have been introduced in the past five years to implement this policy and to create an enabling environment for the private sector. Thuyet reviews some of the more important laws and regulations that affect Viet Nam's private sector activities, including laws on real property, intellectual property, companies, domestic investment, foreign investment, bankruptcy, contracts, and dispute resolution. Anti-monopoly law has not yet been introduced in Vietnam. The issue of competition is addressed in the context of trade law, the relative roles of the state and private sector, and restrictions in company law. These areas all establish the foundation of a legal framework for a market economy. Among Thuyet's conclusions:Vietnam's legal framework, like China's, is still influenced by ideology, which causes problems in such areas as private ownership of real property and with such fundamental legal concepts as due process of law.The private sector is constrained by the lack of an independent judiciary, the absence of private land ownership, other uncertainties in property law that limit the development of financial markets, and the inherent bias of the system in favor of the state sector (and collective ownership).A law-abiding attitude, equally important to development, has been slow to develop.Vietnam's foreign investment process is too complicated, and its company law too restrictive. A first priority should be to streamline regulations.Vietnam has been slow to privatize its state enterprises, another step essential for development. Trade policy also needs to be liberalized.Export processing zones may be a useful interim instrument to attract foreign investment but should be phased out over time. More important in the long term is a good investment climate resting on a strong legal foundation.This paper - a product of the Transition Economics Division, Policy Research Department - is part of a larger effort in the department to understand the legal and institutional requirements for transition from socialism to a market economy.

This book is the first comprehensive assessment of the mortality crisis which has affected most economies in transition but which has remained so far largely unexplained. It reconciles long-term and short-term explanations of the crisis and makes use of special micro data-sets never used before. By providing a rigorous multidisciplinary analysis of this upsurge in mortality rates, the book hopes to contribute to the launch of vigorous policies to tackle this societal problem.

The monograph covers the issues related to the evolution of land tenure systems, land reforms, the main features of formal land law that is in force in the various legal systems of the countries of South, East, and Southeast Asia, and customary land rights. The current state of land law in Asian countries: land rights, the provision and suspension of these rights, the relationship between formal law and customary land tenure systems, the problems of recognizing customary communal land rights are analyzed. For students, graduate students and teachers of law schools, employees of legislative, executive and judicial authorities, as well as for all those interested in issues of land, civil law and comparative jurisprudence.

Vietnam's economy has been fundamentally changed by the policy reforms implemented in the 1980s to provide an environment that is more conducive for economic growth and social stabilization. The policy reforms have had a tremendous impact on economic activities and on all aspects of social life. The economy is presently moving from a centrally planned system largely based on public ownership to a market-oriented and mixed economy. Social structures and values have changed, and legal, institutional, and administrative systems are gradually changing as well. The reform process gives rise to exciting challenges and opportunities for development. Based largely on Vietnamese sources of data and information, this book presents an analysis of the main features of economic policy reforms in Vietnam, their socioeconomic impact, and several major theoretical and practical problems Vietnam faces on its path to development.

Almost one-third of the world's population has embarked on a transition from planned to market economies. Like economic reforms elsewhere, the long-term goal of this transition is to build a thriving market economy capable of delivering long-term growth in living standards. Now in its 19th annual edition, the World Development Report 1996 takes an in-depth look at these transition countries, focusing on the key lessons that have taken place thus far. The introduction to the Report poses a number of key questions that are addressed in later chapters, including questions relating to initial challenges and how contries have tackled them from very different starting points and political conditions. The Report also focuses on the additional challenges these transition countries face, with a final chapter that summarizes the main conclusion of the Report, creating a text that will no doubt become the definitive source for students stydying international economics and politics.