1 Economic reforms and the social aspects of development

The impact of Vietnam's economic reforms on the social aspects of development is less straightforward than on the economic aspects. Though the market economy is still in the process of evolving, both positive and negative aspects of the reforms on social development have begun to reveal themselves.

First and foremost, the social structure in terms of the trades, professions, and incomes has certainly undergone a drastic change along with the economic restructuring. The market economy has brought about a change in requirements for personnel in the trades and professions and calls for a large labour force. In both urban and rural areas, the system of social values hitherto used in evaluating the social positions of the trades and professions as well as of individuals in society has changed. Businessmen, traders, persons engaged in the service sector, who were formerly not held in esteem by society, are now increasing in numbers.

Small and medium-sized private businesses have received a stimulus from the state and they now draw in young people who previously would have preferred to work in the state-managed economic sector or state-run offices.

The ever more accentuated differentiation in incomes between one group of persons and another has on the one hand made for more buoyant business activities, but on the other has weakened the formerly close-knit communal relations, particularly those of rural communities. Peasant households are now playing a more active role while economic community organizations such as agricultural co-operatives and small industrial and handicraft organizations see their role and position being whittled away. In former times, economic community organizations also assumed social welfare functions such as providing health care service at the grassroots level for the welfare of workers and their families, education and care for children at crèche and kindergarten age, insurance for labourers and elderly people, as well as cultural and spiritual activities for the benefit of those living near where the organizations were set up. After the economic restructuring, economic as well as social aspects of welfare provided by such organizations gradually diminished.