Vietnam’s structural reforms must go deeper

The tight monetary policy that Vietnam introduced in 2011 has revealed deep fissures in the country’s political economy. These fissures come about because the economy is comprised of two largely autonomous sectors. The first is a dynamic, competitive export sector, specialising in labour-intensive manufactures and agricultural commodities. The second is a protected sector, dominated by state-owned and state-related firms, which has survived largely on the basis of easy credit and favoured access to land.