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|Official Name||Socialist Republic of Viet Nam|
|Land Area||330,000 sq kilometres|
|Population||86,116,560 million (2009 estimate)|
|Capital City||Ha Noi|
|Religion||Predominantly Buddhist (80-85%) and Catholic (10%)|
|Exchange Rate||NZ$1 : VND17,000 approx (Apr 2012)|
|Political system||One-party state|
|National government||Appointed by the Communist Party of Viet Nam|
|National legislature||Unicameral 500 member National Assembly|
|Last election||January 2011 (Appointment of Communist Party Central Committee and Politburo)
May 2011 (Election of National Assembly)
July 2011 (Appointment of Government leaders by NA)
|Head of State||President Truong Tan Sang|
|Head of Government||Prime Minister||Nguyen Tan Dung|
Deputy Prime Ministers
|Nguyen Xuan Phuc
Hoang Trung Hai
Nguyen Thien Nhan
Vu Van Ninh
|Foreign Affairs||Pham Binh Minh|
|Trade||Vu Huy Hoang|
|Defence||Phung Quang Thanh|
|Planning and Investment||Bui Quang Vinh|
|Agriculture and Rural Development||Cao Duc Phat|
|Education||Pham Vu Luan|
|GDP||US$122 billion (2011)|
|GDP per capita (PPP)||US$1,390 approx (2011)|
|GDP breakdown||Agriculture Industry Services
22% 40% 38%
|Real GDP growth||5.89% (2011)|
|Exports||US$96 billion (2011): +33.3% (yoy)|
|Imports||US$106 billion (2011): +24.7% (yoy)|
|Main exports||Crude oil, Marine Products, Rice, Coffee, Rubber, Tea, Garments, Shoes|
|Gross external debt||US$50 billion approx (2011)|
|NZ Exports (FOB) to Viet Nam||NZ$416.5 million (YE Dec 2011)|
|Main Exports||Dairy products (54%); wood and timber products (17%); tanned or dressed skins and raw hides, scrap metal, live cattle, unwrought lead, seafood, fabrics, fruit paper and pulp.|
|Services Exports||Education, consultancy, construction, software|
|NZ Imports (CIF) from Viet Nam||NZ$256.5 million (YE Dec 2011)|
|Main Imports||Telephone handsets, phosphates, furniture, footwear, nuts, garments, printing machinery, tugboats, coffee.|
Viet Nam has made great progress since it engaged in 1987 on a course of market reform known as doi moi, or renovation. The reforms achieved impressive results, including growth rates that for a time were amongst the highest in Asia and the reduction of poverty from more than 70% of the population to 35%. Today Viet Nam’s growth rates remain among the highest in the region. Viet Nam nevertheless has significant outstanding development and infrastructure needs. Its membership of ASEAN in 1995 and of APEC in 1998 and accession to the WTO in 2007 have done much to strengthen Viet Nam’s international credibility, but are also serving to accelerate the process of regional economic integration with all the difficult restructuring this involves.
Slowly but surely, Viet Nam is making the transition from a centrally controlled command economy to one which is more outward looking, more efficient, and more competitive. Viet Nam’s population and resource base is considerable. Successful development will depend on its ability to meet both the requirements of a free market economy and to continue to invest heavily in the country’s valuable human resources.
Vietnamese history dates back more than 4,000 years to when the ancient Vietnamese people founded their first nation under the name “Van Lang”. The Vietnamese see their more recent history as a long, continuous struggle for freedom and independence. The Chinese ruled the country for nearly a thousand years from 111BC to 939AD. It was subsequently occupied by France for almost 100 years from 1859 to 1945, and then briefly by Japan.
The Socialist Republic of Viet Nam emerged as a unified state in January 1976 following the partition of the country into North and South along the 17th parallel in 1954, which led to a long and bitter struggle in which many of the world’s major powers became embroiled. The Vietnamese still refer to it as the American War, rather than a civil war. The 1973 Paris Peace Agreement paved the way for US troop withdrawals. The Thieu regime in the South lasted only another two years until March 1975.
This was not to be the end of Viet Nam’s wars. It was soon engaged in conflict with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and with the Chinese on its northern border. Peace was not fully restored until the mid 1980s.
In 1977 Viet Nam became an official member of the United Nations.
The Communist Party of Viet Nam has held power since unification. The decisions of its leadership constitute national policy that the Executive (Central Committee) and the Legislature (National Assembly) are required to follow. At provincial and city level, People’s Committees have considerable influence as their approval is a prerequisite for all development projects and expenditure in their jurisdiction.
The official Party policy is “democratisation within a one party state”. The powers of the Communist Party were modified in the revised Constitution of 1992, which required Party organisations to act within the law, and gave increased authority to the Prime Minister and the National Assembly.
Day-to-day policy advice comes from the Party Secretariat (made up of some 14 Politburo and 160 Central Committee members). The Central Committee considers key policy issues several times per year, and five-yearly Party Congresses ratify major policy changes. The 10th Party Congress, held in April2006, led to significant changes in the Party leadership (although NongDuc Manh retained the key position of General Secretary). The National Assembly’s June 2006 session subsequently confirmed a new Government leadership, including new President, Prime Minister and key Cabinet ministers. The Government includes some relatively younger ministers and is considered a first step towards installing a new generation of leaders. The next five-yearly Party Congress in early 2011 will be a major domestic political event that will again see some new leaders appointed; but it is not likely to lead to any major change to Viet Nam’s general policy directions.
Viet Nam’s human rights record is gradually improving although progress has not always been linear. Government monitoring and control of all facets of the political, social, economic, and religious lives of the people is reducing in some areas but is still intrusive and at times erratic. Satellite television and the internet are now available, though internet use is monitored. Religious and media freedoms are closely controlled, and political pluralism has yet to be accepted.
A renewed period of economic reform began in 1986 with the goals of improving living standards and encouraging foreign investment through more open economic policies. The initial steps of economic reform (“doi moi”) had been gradual. But during the 1990s, enhanced institutional support and steadily improving infrastructure made Viet Nam’s growth rate one of the highest in the region. This growth brought impressive gains in incomes and in the quality of life of the Vietnamese people.
Viet Nam continues to do better than many in the region and the government is trying hard to sustain this momentum through carefully targeted support. In 2008 Viet Nam battled a serious inflation crisis even prior to the onset of the global financial crisis, which in many ways had a more worrying domestic impact. The government responded effectively to both crises. In 2009 it injected US$870 million in stimulus funding into the economy, amongst other measures. Problems do remain, including decreased foreign direct investment and foreign tourist flows, but importantly the government is trying to ensure that its stimulatory efforts are directed towards increasing Vietnamese competitiveness when the global economic situation improves. Viet Nam’s reasonable level of export diversification between agricultural and manufactured products has helped to soften the blows.
The Government has started to heed the calls of donor governments and investors for greater transparency, reform of the SOE, financial and trading sectors, and improved public sector governance. Implementation has been slow, however, and Viet Nam retains a strong commitment to state enterprise and outmoded financial and trade regimes. Reforms and restructuring have reduced the numbers of state owned firms to around 6,000, but despite preferential access to credit through the state banking sector, these enterprises are not growing strongly enough to absorb the growing numbers of unemployed. Viet Nam’s growth over the medium term depends on whether it becomes a truly multi-sector economy in which private businesses are able to grow and compete in an undistorted environment with the same freedoms as state enterprises.
From the early 1990s Viet Nam moved quickly to restore relations with the international community. 1995 was a historic year for Viet Nam, with its entry into the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), increasing integration into the global economy (especially a framework agreement with the European Union), and the establishment of formal relations with United States.
China will continue to be Viet Nam’s single most important bilateral relationship and largest trading partner. The two countries regularly exchange high-level visits and are currently building a closer relationship. A treaty delineating the land border between the two countries was concluded in December 1999, thus resolving a longstanding bilateral dispute. The relationship between China and Viet Nam in the South China Sea is complicated, and has regional as well as bilateral dimensions.
Membership of ASEAN is central to Viet Nam’s economic development and international economic integration strategies. Under the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) and the ASEAN Investment Area this co-operation is expected to continue to grow. Viet Nam is an increasingly active member of ASEAN. It very ably chaired ASEAN and the East Asia Summit in 2010. In 1998 Viet Nam was admitted to full membership of APEC, and hosted this Summit in November 2006. Viet Nam served as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the first time in 2008-09 and is seeking election again for the 2020-21 term.
Diplomatic relations with the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam were established in 1975. It was not until 1995 that New Zealand opened an Embassy in Ha Noi, and Trade New Zealand (now New Zealand Trade and Enterprise) established a commercial office (and Consulate General) in Ho Chi Minh City. In May 2003 Viet Nam’s Standing Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Dinh Binh officially opened the Embassy of Viet Nam in Wellington.
New Zealand and Viet Nam marked thirty years of diplomatic relations in 2005. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai visited New Zealand and NZ Governor General Dame Silvia Cartwright visited Viet Nam that year to celebrate this anniversary, and the two Prime Ministers signed a Joint Declaration of Cooperation to established a framework for strengthening bilateral relations .
In 2007 President Nguyen Minh Triet made a successful visit to New Zealand. In September 2009 the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, H.E. Nong Duc Manh, visited New Zealand and with the Prime Minister John Key issued a joint statement establishing a bilateral Comprehensive Partnership which updated and extended the 2005 Declaration of Cooperation.
In July 2010, the Prime Minister John Key made a bilateral visit to Viet Nam to mark the 35th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral relations. Later that month the two foreign ministers signed the New Zealand-Viet Nam Action Plan (2010-2013) which gives effect to the Comprehensive Partnership across a wide range of sectors including trade, science and technology, education, defence, policing and customs cooperation. In October 2010, the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs returned to Ha Noi to attend the East Asia Summit and also made a bilateral visit to Ho Chi Minh City.
In addition to these bilateral linkages, Ministers and officials of the two countries meet regularly in multilateral and regional fora, such as the United Nations and its specialised agencies, APEC, the East Asia Summit, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), with which New Zealand has dialogue partner status.
Viet Nam is New Zealand’s 25th largest trading partner, with total trade of NZ$673 million in the YE Dec 2011. New Zealand’s main exports to Viet Nam are dairy products, which account for over 50 percent of New Zealand’s export trade (YE Dec 2011), and timber and timber products. Vietnamese imports have been mainly in phosphates, furniture, petroleum, nuts, footwear, telecom handsets, coffee, and crustaceans. Services trade is not captured in the statistics, but exports of education (NZ), tourism (Viet Nam), and consultation services (NZ) have become an increasingly important component of the economic relationship. Viet Nam was the 10th largest source of international students in New Zealand in 2011, with a total of 2,150 students at all levels from short-course training to doctoral research.
New Zealand and Viet Nam signed a bilateral trade agreement in July 1994, which granted MFN status to goods traded between the two countries, and bilateral trade has grown significantly since that time. The ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) was substantively concluded in August 2008, and entered into effect from 1 January 2010. The Agreement provides fresh opportunities for bilateral trade, migration and capacity-building assistance, although more work is required to ensure that respective business communities capitalise on these.
Both countries are now participating in negotiations on a new Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement alongside Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore and the United States.
The Vietnamese Government made a series of commitments to simplify its trading regime and adopt international standards in areas such as customs valuation procedures and product classification as part of Viet Nam’s accession to the WTO in January 2007. As a result, Viet Nam’s trading regime has become more transparent and consistent, although periodic access problems remain.
Negotiations on a bilateral Air Services Agreement (ASA) were successfully concluded in February 2003, when a draft ASA was initialled and subsequently approved by New Zealand’s Cabinet. The signing of the ASA was witnessed by Prime Minister Clark during her visit to Ha Noi in October 2003.
The New Zealand Aid Programme to Viet Nam has an allocation of NZ$10 million in 2011/12. The Vietnam Country Strategy 2007-16 which sets out the agreed goal and direction of our aid programme in Viet Nam was bolstered by the launch in 2010 of the four ASEAN Flagships namely: NZ-ASEAN Scholars Awards, Agricultural Diplomacy, Disaster Risk Management and Young Business Leaders. The focus of New Zealand’s Aid Programme in Viet Nam is on sustainable economic development and education. This includes livelihood development for farmers and poor households in Binh Dinh province, land administration reform in collaboration with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and a new Early Childhood Education project in Gia Lai Province.
A total of 30 NZ ASEAN Scholars Awards Programme post-graduate scholarships are offered to Vietnamese students each year. New Zealand also continues to offer training to mid and senior level Vietnamese officials through its successful English Language Training for Officials (ELTO) programme that has been running for over 15 years. Almost 400 Vietnamese officials have spent extended periods of time in New Zealand through this initiative.
In 2001, the New Zealand Defence Attaché based in Bangkok was accredited to Viet Nam. New defence cooperation activities are being developed, including training opportunities for Vietnamese military in New Zealand. HMNZS Te Kaha and HMNZS Endeavour visited Ho Chi Minh City in 2002 and 2004, and again in August 2006, and HMNZS Te Mana visited Ho Chi Minh City in June 2011. The NZ Chief of Defence Force visited in August 2008, New Zealand Chiefs of Army visited in 2004 and 2010, and NZDF's Command and Staff College visited in 2005 and 2011. Vietnamese Vice Ministers of Defence visited New Zealand in 2007 and 2010. Annual defence talks now take place.
New Zealand Police and Customs Attaches were cross-accredited to Viet Nam from Bangkok in 2003. A bilateral arrangement on cooperation to combat transnational crime was concluded in May 2010, and a bilateral customs cooperative arrangement was concluded in June 2010.
Members of Viet Nam’s National Assembly, lead by Chairman Nguyen Van An, visited New Zealand in July 2004. A New Zealand/Viet Nam Parliamentary Friendship Group, designed to forge greater links and understanding between our two parliaments was established in July 2007. The New Zealand Speaker of Parliament Hon Dr Lockwood Smith visited Viet Nam in April 2009. A Vice Chairman of the National Assembly, Dr Uong Chu Luu, led a study delegation to New Zealand in June 2010.
As the bilateral relationship has deepened the pace of visits to and from Viet Nam has increased. The following high level visits have taken place since 2009:
Recent New Zealand high-level visits to Viet Nam
Recent Viet Nam high-visits to New Zealand
New Zealand Embassy is represented is Viet Nam by:
Viet Nam is represented in New Zealand by:
The Safetravel website provides a travel advisory for travellers to Viet Nam [external link].
Enquiries may be directed to Consular Division at the following numbers:
Tel: +64 4 439 8000
Fax: +64 4 439 8532.