Please note - this is a temporary window. id21 is joining forces with Eldis and therefore the id21 website has been suspended. Soon all id21 content will be available on the Eldis website.

Economic growth in Viet Nam is not shared equally by all ethnic minorities

There are substantial differences in living standards among Viet Nam’s 54 officially recognised ethnic groups. Most lowland Vietnamese Kinh, who make up 84 percent of the population, have benefited greatly from economic reforms initiated since the late 1980s. However, most ethnic minority groups have gained less and are being left behind.

The government in Ho Chi Minh famously declared the need to ensure the unity and equality of all the peoples of Viet Nam. However, research from the Institute of Development Studies, in the UK, and the Centre for Analysis and Forecasting, in Viet Nam, shows that measures of living standards (such as poverty, expenditures, life expectancy, school enrolment, and nutritional status) remain low among Viet Nam’s ethnic minorities. This is despite the many policies introduced to assist them.

The Kinh majority have traditionally inhabited fertile lowland and coastal areas in and around the Red River and Mekong River deltas, while the Hoa (ethnic Chinese) live in urban areas (especially Ho Chi Minh City). With the exception of the Khmer (who are concentrated in the Mekong Delta) and the Chăm (located along the southern coast), most other ethnic groups live across Viet Nam’s upland and highland areas.

It is here that deprivation is greatest. Despite comprising just over one-eighth of the national population, the ethnic minorities account for about two-fifths of poor people. Between 1993 and 2004, the percentage of Viet Nam’s population living in poverty fell from 58.1 to 19.5 percent, but among ethnic minorities, this measure only declined from 86.4 to 60.7 percent. Ethnic minorities tend to be less educated, lack sufficient land of good quality, have limited access to skilled jobs and often lack competence in the national language.

Research shows that:

The disadvantaged position of Viet Nam’s ethnic minority groups cannot be attributed only to the fact that they live mostly in remote and mountainous areas.
The highly-biased pattern of industrialisation and foreign investment, focused on Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi (where Kinh and Hoa predominate) has deepened regional differences.
Without special measures to protect them, the 17 ethnic groups with populations of less than 10,000 are likely to lose their cultural identities and may even disappear entirely.

The Government of Viet Nam has adopted numerous measures to improve the situation in remote communes through investments in infrastructure such as roads, schools and markets, along with subsidies to make commodities and transportation more affordable. However, research has found that these measures alone cannot promote greater equality among Viet Nam’s ethnic groups.

Key recommendations include:

greater decentralisation of government poverty reduction programmes, ensuring they cater to the specific contexts and needs of the ethnic minorities
delivery of agricultural extension and marketing services tailored to the diverse agricultures of upland and highland areas
in-depth qualitative analysis to uncover the cultural norms and values that underlie the increasingly disadvantaged position of many ethnic minority groups
firm action and equal opportunity legislation to increase ethnic minorities’ access to waged employment.

Source(s):
‘The Economic Development of Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam’, Policy Brief, Institute of Development Studies/Centre for Analysis and Forecasting, IDS: Brighton, 2008 (PDF) Full document.
‘Ethnic Minority Development in Vietnam’, Journal of Development Studies 43 (7), pages 1151-1176, by Bob Baulch, Truong Thi Kim Chuyen, Dominique Haughton and Jonathan Haughton, 2007
‘Ethnicity and Household Welfare in Vietnam: Empirical Evidence from 1993 to 2004’, Revised Draft, Institute of Development Studies, IDS: Brighton, by Bob Baulch, Hung T Pham and Barry Reilly, 2007 (PDF) Full document.

Funded by: Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and the UK Department for International Development

id21 Research Highlight: 27 April 2008

Further Information:
Bob Baulch
Ethnic Minority Development in Vietnam Project
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9RE
UK

Tel: +44 1273 678774
Fax: +44 1273 621202
Contact the contributor: b.baulch@ids.ac.uk

Institute of Development Studies, UK

Views expressed on these pages are not necessarily those of DfID, IDS, id21 or other contributing institutions. Articles featured on the id21 site may be copied or quoted without restriction provided id21 and originating author(s) and institution(s) are acknowledged. Copyright © 2009 IDS. All rights reserved.

id21 is funded by the UK Department for International Development. id21 is one of a family of knowledge services at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. id21 is a www.oneworld.net partner and an affiliate of www.mediachannel.org. IDS is a charitable company, No. 877338.