Reduction In Vietnam Research Articles

Factors determining upland farmers' participation in non-timber forest product value chains for sustainable poverty reduction in Vietnam

The development of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) plays an active role in overall economic development and is considered a new direction for sustainable forestry development to help people escape poverty. From micro data collected by a survey of poor, rural households living in the mountainous region of Central Vietnam, a structural equation model (SEM) incorporating the six factors of household head characteristics, household characteristics, reputation statuses of households, forest characteristics, willingness to participate in NTFP value chains, and financial effects of NTFP value chains was established. An empirical study of the effects of farmers' behaviors on NTFP financial value chains was also conducted. The results showed that household head characteristics, household characteristics, reputation statuses of households, and forest characteristics were positively correlated with people's willingness to participate in NTFP value chains and increase the financial efficiency of the value chains. However, each factor has a different level of influence. Additional empirical factors affecting farmers' awareness of poverty reduction policies were investigated. It was found that the more farmers understand sustainable poverty reduction policies, the more willing they are to participate in the value chains. The willingness to participate in the value chains strongly affects the financial performances of the value chains. Farmers are expected to be willing to fulfill their obligations and their enthusiasm for participating in the value chains has increased the financial efficiency of the value chains. In the future, the government can cooperate with official financial institutions, policy finance institutions, and local rural intermediaries to increase public financial knowledge, poverty reduction policies and projects in poor areas, and the participation of poor farmers, as well as solve their credit problems. Meanwhile, in developing a financial model of new NTFP value chains, more attention should be paid to the needs of farmers and this model should be built with the aim of the sustainable development of NTFP value chains.

The impact of urbanization on poverty reduction: An evidence from Vietnam

Poverty is a global socio-economic phenomenon. It is always a problem in all countries include developing countries and developed countries. In Vietnam, the poverty rate has been decreasing while the urbanization has happened rapidly over the past 20 years. Handling the dual problems of urbanization and poverty is important to be able to attain sustainable development. Therefore, this study is to analyze the impact of urbanization on poverty reduction in Vietnam. Using Driscoll and Kraay’s method and D-GMM method to estimate the provinces’ panel data in the period 2006–2016, we confirm that there exists a U-shape relationship between the level of urbanization and the poverty level in Vietnam. Moreover, the estimated thresholds of urbanization from the perspective of poverty reduction are 40.19% and 43.68% in the static and dynamic model, respectively. In addition, our results exhibit that the gross regional domestic product, human capital, and agricultural value have the effect of reducing poverty, but government spending and export value increases the poverty rate in Vietnam. The paper has relevant implications for policymakers.

Credit composition and income inequality in Vietnam: an empirical analysis

PurposeThis paper examines credit composition and income inequality reduction in Vietnam. In particular, the authors focus on the distinction between policy and commercial credits and investigate whether these two types of credit adversely affect on income inequality. The authors also examine whether the educational level and institutional quality condition the impact of policy credit on income inequality.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use the primary data set, which contains a panel of 60 provinces collected from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam from 2002 to 2016. The authors employ the generalized method of moments to solve the endogenous problem.FindingsThe authors show that while commercial credit increases income inequality, policy credit reduces income inequality in Vietnam. In addition, we provide evidence that the institutional quality and educational level condition the impact of policy credit on income inequality. Based on the findings, the paper implies that it was not the size of the private credit but its composition that mattered in reducing income inequality due to the asymmetric effects of different types of credit.Practical implicationThe government should focus on credit for the poor by helping them to exit poverty through investing in human capital, health and micro enterprises activities.Originality/valueThis is the first study that examines the links between the two components of credit and income inequality as well as the constraints of the links. The authors argue that analyzing the separate effects of commercial and policy credits is more important for explaining the role of credit in income inequality than the size of total credit.

Policy credit and income inequality reduction in Vietnam: An empirical analysis

Policy credit and income inequality reduction in Vietnam: An empirical analysis

Evolution of Transparency Reporting towards Effective Transition to Low Carbon Economy in Vietnam

The paper analyzed the evolution of policies to reduce GHG emissions reduction in Vietnam, primarily to fulfill its transparency commitment under the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement. The uncertainty in the transparency rules of the Paris Agreement will be considered to sketch-out the most likely options for developing national policies to meet the future transparency requirements. The key actors and factors in Vietnam impacted by the policies are illustrated. To analyze the extent of penetration of transparency actions and future potentials provided these options, the progress of building congruence toward domesticating international norms of climate change in Vietnam by empirical assessment of the readiness to implement the ETF is conducted. In their turns, the way each relevant stakeholder responded to newly introduced requirements has a profound impact on policy making and enforcement in Vietnam and can represent a typical example of how the community react to a shift in transparency frameworks. Besides, the paper explores how the transparency policies will imply on the monitoring the transition to a low carbon economy in Vietnam under those reactions and the recommend the way forwards that the country may adopt to make its climate change commitment achieved and benefit significantly from the process.

The Effect of Economic Growth and Urbanization on Poverty Reduction in Vietnam

This article aims to measure the impact of economic growth and urbanization on poverty reduction in Vietnam, and verify whether economic growth and urbanization will help reduce poverty rates. Data for this study are tabular data related to growth, urbanization and poverty at the provincial level for the period of nine years, from 2006 to 2014 provided by the Vietnam General Statistics Office and the Vietnam General Department of Customs. The level of economic growth and urbanization mentioned in the study is reflected in such indicators as GDP value, exports value, imports value, urbanization rate and employment rate. The authors used logistic regression models with fixed-effects and logistic regression models with random effects. With 5% confidence level tested by the Chi-Square test of Hausman trial with the fixed-effect model, research results show that: (1) factors with significant negative impact on the poverty rate include imports value, urbanization rate and, employment rate; (2) factors that do not affect the poverty rate include exports value and GDP value. Based on the research results, this study proposes a number of policy recommendations to help promote economic growth, to sustain the urbanization process, and to contribute directly and positively to poverty reduction in Vietnam.

The political system’s organizational structure and staff reduction process in Vietnam at present

The political system of Vietnam follows the former Soviet style, which includes the following elements from central to local level: Party, State, Fatherland Front and mass organizations. This type of organizational structure has shown increasing limitations in the current context of an open economy and global integration. These need to be reformed and improved. While there are enormous challenges in this reform process, there are encouraging changes. Therefore, it is essential to renovate fundamental understanding on political system structure and induce the strong political will of the whole political system, particularly within the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). Based on the theoretical model of political will developed by Post et al. (2010), this study aims to test the assumption that the political system organizational restructuring and staff reduction process will be successful with strong political will and public support. The findings show that the on-going political system organizational process and staff reduction in Vietnam seems to be in line with the assumption. There are impressive initial achievements. These include: (i) elimination of three steering committees, seven directorates etc.; around 200 bureaus, departments etc., and 65 provincial departments; (ii) reduction of 50 directorate-level leading positions, more than 300 bureau and department-level leading positions, about 200 provincial department-level leading positions and about 10,000 division/office-level managers. Challenges are inertia within the system, hesitation and conflicts of interest among decision makers. Therefore, strong political will from the top level, common understanding and effort from all Party members and support from people, as well as effective solutions in the coming years, are all required.

Private sector development and provincial patterns of poverty: Evidence from Vietnam

Abstract Private sector development and the relationship between private firms and the state-owned sector continue to figure prominently in the debate about poverty reduction. Growth of private firms may generate economic opportunities, but changes of the role of the state in the economy may also carry social risks. The subnational dimension of the link between the private sector’s weight in the economy and poverty remains underexplored. How do changing regional patterns of private sector development shape the geography of poverty? Especially in transition economies, reforms altering conditions for private enterprises and foreign direct investment do not always proceed at the same speed in all regions. This paper examines the link between province-level changes in private firms’ formal employment share and poverty reduction in Vietnam’s provinces during 1999–2009. Particularly since 2000, Vietnam has taken large steps towards an equal administrative treatment of all firms irrespective of ownership. Provincial governments often enjoyed considerable freedom in their interpretation of reforms, contributing to differential province-level patterns of progress in private sector development. The empirical analysis combines data from Vietnam’s enterprise survey, independent poverty estimates, and two rounds of population censuses. Instrumental variable regressions reveal that larger increases of private firms’ employment share are associated with larger reductions in poverty. This finding demonstrates that allowing some regions to move faster or slower than others regarding reforms changing the conditions for private firms and foreign direct investment is likely to leave an imprint on the country’s geography of development. Multinational enterprises, rather than domestic private firms, emerge as drivers of the association identified in our analysis. The Vietnamese case therefore illustrates the poverty reduction potential of export-oriented activities of multinational enterprises, while simultaneously casting doubt on the contribution of small and medium sized enterprises to poverty alleviation.

Impacts of the sectoral composition of growth on poverty reduction in Vietnam

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of sectoral economic growth and other factors on poverty reduction in Vietnam in the period 2010–2016.Design/methodology/approachOriginating from the question of whether there is an endogenous problem between the structure of economic growth by sector and some other factors in the process of impact on poverty reduction, the paper has used the 2-Stage Least Squares method to deal with the endogenous issues.FindingsIncreasing the proportion of the industrial sector and the agricultural sector had great impacts on poverty reduction. In contrast, the increasing proportion of the service sector made the poverty rate higher. One noticeable thing is that economic growth was not significant for the goal of poverty reduction in 2010–2016. In addition, the process of urbanization, the increase in the labor rate and literacy rate contributed positively to poverty reduction achievements. Finally, population growth was also one of the reasons hindering Vietnam’s successful poverty reduction process.Practical implicationsAccelerating the process of economic restructuring in the direction of increasing the proportion of the industry is accompanied by more attention to agricultural development than the service sector. Employment creation policies should be promoted. Maintaining population control by educating poverty reduction awareness for the poor will have a positive effect on long-term poverty reduction.Originality/valueResearch on the growth structure by sector affecting poverty reduction in Vietnam is still relatively limited. The study of relationships in the context of endogenous existence is still quite limited in Vietnam. Therefore, this paper has focused on the question of sectoral economic growth affects poverty in the interrelation among sectors in the process of economic development.

Microfinance for the Poor in Viet Nam

Most of the research on hunger elimination and poverty reduction in the global scope as well as in Vietnam shows that microfinance is an effective tool which has been successfully applied in many countries for the purpose of fighting against poverty and hunger. In general, the performance of hunger elimination and poverty reduction in Vietnam has gained impressive achievements in accordance with proposed Millennium Development Goals. However, the efficiency of microfinance service for the poor is still inadequate. Together with success in the innovation of legal framework, microfinance market becomes busy but in a muddle, with the principles in which the market is still governed by subsidiary lending mechanism. In addition, Vietnam microfinance system is still at a start in comparison with the regional and international standard. The writer would like to share his opinions and propose some solutions and recommendations in order to support microfinance organizations to stably operate and to help the poor in Vietnam for a long time and in a sustainable manner.

Possible planting areas for Panax vietnamensis var. fuscidiscus toward poverty reduction in Vietnam

Laichau ginseng, Panax vietnamensis var. fuscidiscus, has been contributing to poverty reduction for ethnic communities in Vietnam. Therefore, identifying suitable planting areas becomes important for sustainable development. Four main conditions were selected for mapping, including elevation above sea level, air temperature, precipitation, and vegetation types. It was then classified to three levels of suitable, less-suitable, and not-suitable. Four corresponding digital maps were used to overlap and met areas were generated. The results indicated that total suitable area for planting Laichau ginseng was 17,339.3 ha, accounting for 1.9 % total provincial land area, and the total less-suitable area was 22,438.1 ha, accounting for 2.5 %. It is concluded that Laichau ginseng should be only planted in suitable areas. In other areas, trials must be conducted for further recommendations.

Possible planting areas for Panax vietnamensis var. fuscidiscus toward poverty reduction in Vietnam

Possible planting areas for Panax vietnamensis var. fuscidiscus toward poverty reduction in Vietnam

Vulnerability of Vietnam to typhoons: A spatial assessment based on hazards, exposure and adaptive capacity

Typhoons have devastating impacts across many Asian countries. Vietnam is presently one of the most disaster-prone nations. Typhoons regularly disrupt human lives and livelihoods in various ways and cause significant damage. Making efficient policy decisions to minimize the vulnerability of affected communities is crucial. This requires a deep understanding of the factors that make a society vulnerable to extreme events and natural disasters. An appropriate approach is integrating the three dimensions of hazard, exposure and sensitivity, and community adaptive capacity. However, the vulnerability and adaptive capacity response to typhoons within Vietnam is poorly investigated.Here, we develop a conceptual framework that incorporates 21 indicators to identify vulnerability and adaptive capacity (VAC) using geospatial techniques at regional scales, applied over Vietnam. We find large spatial differences in VAC and are able to identify the top-priority regions that need to enhance their adaptation to typhoons. The Southern Coastal area, South East and Red River Delta demonstrate high and very high vulnerability because of their physical features and the intensity of typhoons that frequently cross these parts of Vietnam. The lower Mekong Delta and Northern Coastal areas are vulnerable to typhoon-driven flood threats, in particular where compounded by sea-level rise. Our framework successfully identified the spatial distribution and different levels of VAC within acceptable limits of uncertainty. It can therefore serve as a template to tackle national issues in disaster risk reduction in Vietnam and assist in the development of suitable mitigation strategies to achieve sustainable outcomes.

Research to Evaluate the Quality of Passenger Bus Body Frame, Assuring the Passive Safety in the Design Process

At present, we are aiming to improve the localization rate and cost reduction in Vietnam, the bus manufacturing units have made their own chassis on the basis of appropriate selection. Passenger bus body frame design is an important process to ensure the suitability and quality of the product before the manufacturing. According to the governmental regulations, the vehicle manufacturing sector in Vietnam must comply with a design approval process and type approval test. Designs must be approved by the competent authority prior to the commencement of manufacturing. There are some applicable regulations in Vietnam such as the standard QCVN 09:2015/BGTVT and QCVN 10:2015/BGTVT on the standards for passenger buses to ensure technical safety and environmental protection. However, there is no specific regulation on the evaluation of bus durability to ensure the passive safety of such vehicles. During the design process, it is possible to calculate the durability accurately that determines the quality of the passenger bus body frame. It could enable automobile manufacturers as well as the competent authorities of design quality approval to control the bus body frame quality, resulting in the improvment of the pruduct, the competitiveness of the product and reducing the production cost. This presentation is the result of structural studies which calculated the deformation of the passenger bus body frame in frontal crash in accordance with the standard ECE R33 and the case of flipping in accordance with the standard ECE R66 for the 46-seat passenger bus, manufactured in Vietnam by Ansys/LS-Dyna software. Accordingly, this evaluation was implemented to assess the quality of the passenger bus body frame in the design process. The result shows that the passenger bus body frame meets the requirement of durability and passive safety in accordance with the calculated standards.

Distributional Effects of Foreign Direct Investment on Poverty: The Case of Vietnam

In this paper, we examine the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) on poverty reduction in Vietnam. The influences of FDI on the poor can be categorised into two types - growth-enhancing effects and distributional effects. This empirical study analyses the two effects through a sub-national data of 63 provinces and three regions of Vietnam from 2005 to 2015, using Driscoll-Kraay regression and the Sobel-Goodman mediation bootstrapping test. We measure the role of FDI as a synthetic contribution of FDI capital inflow, FDI productivity, and FDI labour creation. Results of this analysis suggest that FDI could reduce poverty throughout these regions of Vietnam since it stimulates productivity and job creation with foreign enterprises. Government bodies, therefore, need to prioritise the regulation of FDI enterprises over calling for FDI inflow at both the national and provincial levels. Additionally, differences in FDI distributions exist between Northern, Central, and Southern Vietnam.

Framing rhino horn demand reduction in Vietnam: Dismissing medical use as voodoo

According to Milliken and Shaw (2012) a surge in illegal rhino poaching in South Africa since 2006 was linked to increasing demand for rhino horn in Vietnam. This article examines one of the key frames, the ‘Voodoo Wildlife Parts’ (VWP) frame, which Environmental Non-Government Organisations (ENGOs) in Vietnam have been using in rhino horn demand reduction media campaigns. The VWP frame emerged from the findings of a research project that investigated the news frames present in the media outputs of seven ENGOs, both local and international, opposing the Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) in Vietnam. This article will briefly outline the four frames that emerged from that research, then discuss the two subthemes of the VWP frame and its scientific basis and the nature of the feedback from journalists and the public that influenced the frame’s production.

An input–output linear programming model for assessing climate policy considering economic growth

Deploying new strategies to reduce the effect of climate change may constrain economic growth. It is thus necessary to develop a model which evaluates the trade-off between economic and environmental influences prior to a policy implementation. Recent studies have proved the effectiveness of input–output linear programming model in identifying the optimal solutions when different climate policies are considered. However, analyzing sectoral linkage to give priority sectors and then finding optimal solutions through reducing pollution from these sectors, which help avoid the economic losses from low-polluting sectors, have not been figured out in previous works. This study first uses input–output an (IO) analysis to provide a measure of structural interdependence among economic sectors and present priority sectors. An IO optimization model is then developed for minimizing the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in order to identify strategies for GHG intensity reduction in Vietnam, focusing on the priority sectors. In addition, the effect of GHG emissions on human health using the disability adjusted life years (DALY) is further evaluated. Six scenarios are considered to identify the potentials of highest GHG intensity reduction that can be obtained by the year 2020. These scenarios encompass BAU, the consideration of different GDP growth rates, differentiated economic sector growth, economic restructure, and the adaptation of lower-pollution technology implementation for the priority sectors. Each scenario quantifies sectoral final demand, sectoral gross domestic output, sectoral GHG emissions, GHG intensity, and DALY. The linkage analysis results indicate that agriculture, fishery and forestry, transport and communication, personal, community and household, manufacturing of non-metallic mineral products, and mining and quarrying are priority sectors. The optimization solutions present that the best strategy is by taking advantages of identified measures. The best solution obtains 20.3% reduction in GHG intensity compared to baseline. These obtained results become the useful suggestions for decision makers and environmental management in designing successful environmental regulations.

The Control of Typhoid Fever in Vietnam.

.Typhoid fever, caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi), is a diminishing public health problem in Vietnam, and this process may represent a prototype for typhoid elimination in Asia. Here, we review typhoid epidemiology in Vietnam over 20 years and assess the potential drivers associated with typhoid reduction. In the 1990s, multidrug resistant S. Typhi were highly prevalent in a sentinel hospital in southern Vietnam. A national typhoid incidence rate of 14.7/100,000 population per year was estimated around the new millennium. The Vietnamese government recognized the public health issue of typhoid in the 1990s and initiated vaccine campaigns to protect the most vulnerable members of the population. At their peak, these campaigns immunized approximately 1,200,000 children in 35 provinces. Concurrently, Vietnam experienced unprecedented economic development from 1998 to 2014, with the gross national income per capita increasing from $360 to $1,890 over this period. More recent typhoid incidence data are not available, but surveillance suggests that the current disease burden is negligible. This trajectory can be considered a major public health success. However, a paucity of systematic data makes it difficult to disaggregate the roles of immunization and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions in typhoid reduction in Vietnam. Given the limitations of typhoid vaccines, we surmise the practical elimination of typhoid was largely driven by economic development and improvement in general population living standards. Better designed WASH intervention studies with clinical endpoints and systematic incidence data are essential to glean a greater understanding of contextual factors that impact typhoid incidence reduction.

Assessing the Effectiveness of South Korea’s Development Assistance in Vietnam

South Korea’s development assistance has become an important resource in facilitating Vietnam’s socio-economic development and contributed to infrastructure establishment, agricultural and rural development, as well as hunger eradication and poverty reduction in Vietnam over the past 25 years. By adopting indicators proposed in the Busan Partnership Agreement and OECD’s DAC criteria, desk study and in-depth interviews, the paper assessed the effectiveness of South Korea’s development aid in Vietnam at three levels: nation, donor and project level. The results show that at both national and donor levels, South Korea’s ODA in Vietnam is successful and effective in terms of aligning objectives of both sides, facilitating engagement of private sectors, supporting a forward-looking vision, providing public and up-to-date information, and applying effective international methods to monitor and evaluate ODA projects. At project level, the QCGH project of KOICA has proved to be relatively successful especially in terms of relevance and impacts. The paper also pointed out shortcomings of South Korea’s development at national and donor levels with a focus on disbursement of development aid, the use of Vietnam’s financial system, strictly binding conditions and limited inclusive cooperation between South Korea and Vietnam in assessing the effectiveness of South Korea’s development aid. At project level, the shortcomings lied mainly under efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability indicators. Based on evaluation of South Korean’s aid performance and effectiveness in Vietnam, the paper drew out some implications to strengthen South Korea’s development aid effectiveness in Vietnam in the future. 
 Keywords
 Aid effectiveness, Vietnam, South Korea, development aid, development assistance
 References
 
 [1] Department of Planning and Investment of Quang Binh province, Report on ODA attraction, management and utilization and loans in the period 2011-2015 and orientation to attract ODA and loans for the period 2016-2020 of Quang Binh province, 2015. [2] EDCF 2015. EDCF Annual Report. Seoul: Economic Development Cooperation Report [3] JICA, New JICA Guidelines for Project Evaluation: First edition. Tokyo: Japan International Cooperation Agency, 2010.[4] KOICA. Ex-Post Evaluation on the Project for the Establishment of the Central General Hospital in Quang Nam Province, Vietnam. Gyeonggi-do: KOICA, 2014.[5] KOICA, KOICA Annual Report 2016. Gyeonggi-do: KOICA, 2016.[6] Ministry of Strategy and Finance of South Korea and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, 2014 Korea’s Official Development Assistance White Paper: Opening a New Era of Happiness for All Humanity, Seoul, Ministry of Strategy and Finance of South Korea, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, 2014.[7] OECD, Evaluating Development Co-operation: Summary of key norms and standards, OECD, 2010.[8] OECD & UNDP, Making Development Cooperation More Effective : 2014 Progress Report, OECD Publishing, 2014.

Does Horizontal Inequality Matter in Vietnam?

This paper examines the issue of horizontal inequalities in Vietnam over the past 20 years. Using data from three recent Vietnam population censuses (1989, 1999, and 2009) and three Vietnam Household Living Standard Surveys (1998, 2008, 2012), we estimated numerous measures on inequalities between five groups against four welfare indicators. Our results show that horizontal inequality matters in Vietnam, in particular for ethnicity, region, and rural/urban groups. While there has been an improvement in horizontal inequality in education, this paper shows little change in other welfare indicators, in particular poverty. We also found that horizontal inequality does matter for poverty reduction in Vietnam and it needs more attention when designing poverty policies in the future.