Unequal Regional Development in Rural Vietnam: Sources of Spatial Disparities and Policy Considerations

Hoang Van Long

doi:10.22610/jebs.v5i6.408

Abstract

In Vietnam, the poor have long been assumed to be the ethnic minorities mostly living in the highlands. After more than two decades of introducing Doi moi1 policy into the economy, along with having enjoyed various improvements in social and economic aspects, the disparities between the majority and ethnic majorities, the lowlands and the highlands, and between regions, still have been widened. This paper aims at examining sources of spatial disparities in rural areas, and exploring the current situation of regional economic development using both development policy review and econometrics approaches. Data from Vietnam Household Living Standard Survey (VHLSS) 2008 was used in the study. The expenditure per capita was employed as the dependent variable to regress with household characteristics and resources in order to obtain the effecting factors. In addition, the regional dummy variables were employed to show the effects from different geographic locations. The results showed that the household characteristics and resources such as education level, perennial land area, water surface area, and the accessibility to infrastructure facilities such as road, electricity and local market had positive effect on the expenditure. Furthermore, the North Central Coastal region showed negative impact on household expenditure. Interestingly, this finding does not absolutely follow the hypothesis and indicates that the economic development strategy and polices should be adjusted to decrease the gap among regions based on their economic advantages for balancing the economic situation of the whole country in the future.

Highlights

In Rural Vietnam, the poor have long been assumed to be the ethnic minorities mostly living in the highlands
The results show that the ethnic minority groups have lower expenditure than the majority
The factors that affect the regional disparity in rural areas of Vietnam are associated with household characteristics and resources

Summary

Introduction

In Rural Vietnam, the poor have long been assumed to be the ethnic minorities mostly living in the highlands. Inequalities between the rich and the poor, the lowlands and the highlands, the rural and the urban, as well as the ethnic lines or among difference regions have been a serious concern among policy makers (Epprecht, Müller, & Minot, 2009; Vandermoortele & Bird, 2010; Walle & Gunewardena, 2001), especially in the rural areas where 75% of population were living and tend to be poorer compare the urban ones. These gaps arise from the differences of culture, language, custom, and the ability to access credit and technology. Finding of the low-income regions and addressing their determinant factors have an important implication for rural and economic development policy and strategy

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