National Unification and Economic Development in Vietnam

313 Pages·1989·28.186 MB·English

by  Melanie Beresford (auth.)

NATIONAL UNIFICATION AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM
STUDIES IN THE ECONOMIES OF EAST AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
General Editors: Peter Nolan, Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics
and Politics, University of Cambridge, and Fellow and Director of
Studies in Economics, Jesus College, Cambridge, England; and
Malcolm Falkus, Professor of Economic History, University of New
England, Armidale, NSW, Australia
In the last decades of the twentieth century the small and medium
sized nations of East and South-East Asia have begun a process of
potentially enormous political and economic transformation.
Explosive growth has occurred already in many parts of the region
and the more slowly-growing countries are attempting to emulate
this vanguard group. The impact of the region upon the world
economy has increased rapidly and is likely to continue to do so in
the future.
In order to understand better economic developments within this
vast and diverse region, this series will aim to publish books on both
contemporary and historical issues. It will include works both by
Western scholars and by economists from countries within the
region.
NATIONAL UNIFICATION AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM
Melanie Beresford
TRADE, INDUSTRIAL RESTRUCTURING, AND
DEVELOPMENT IN HONG KONG
Yin-Ping Ho
GROWTH AND STRUCTURAL CHANGE IN AN OPEN
ECONOMY: The Case of Malaysia
Jomo K. S.
MONEY AND FINANCE IN THE ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT OF TAIWAN
Lee Sheng-Yi
National Unification
and Economic
Development
in Vietnam
Melanie Beresford
Lecturer in History,
University of Wol/ongong, Australia
M
MACMILLAN
© Melanie Beresford 1989
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First published 1989
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
Typeset by Latimer Trend & Company Ltd
Plymouth
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Beresford, Melanie
National unification and economic development in Vietnam.
I. Vietnam. Economic development, 1949-1988
I. Title
330.959704
ISBN 978-0-333-49729-6 ISBN 978-1-349-20411-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20411-3
Contents
List of Tables VI
List of Figures Vlll
Preface IX
Terms and Abbreviations Xlll
Maps
Northern Vietnam XV
Southern Vietnam XVI
Introduction
2 Political Unity and Economic Separation: the Colonial
Period 16
3 Economy of the Republic of Vietnam, 1955-75 47
4 Southern Agriculture 90
5 Household and Collective in Vietnamese Agriculture 130
6 The Vietnamese Industrialisation Debate 162
7 Socialist Commodity Production 213
8 Conclusion 239
Notes 244
Bibliography 280
Index 291
v
List of Tables
2.1 General Budget (calendar year 1937) 22
2.2 Population of Indo-China in 1936 23
2.3 Expenditure from General Budget and loans on public
works by region 1900-29 24
2.4 Public works expenditure by region 1900-35 25
2.5 Coastal trade of Haiphong in 1936 by region 29
2.6 Port of Haiphong: imports and exports to Annam and
Cochin-China and to the rest of the world 30
2.7 Port of Saigon: coastal trade by region in 1922 31
2.8 Value of inter-Regional coastal trade via Saigon, 1922 32
2.9 Rice and paddy carried by coastal trade 1914-45 33
2.10 Volume and intensity of traffic on Trans Indo-China
Railway in 1936--7 34
2.11 Registered vehicles 1925-9 36
2.12 Workforce on Indo-Chinese plantations 1921-47 37
2.13 Arrivals, departures and repatriation of contract
labourers 1923-38 40
2.14 Workers breaking contract, mortality rate and net loss
to plantation labour force 1919-40 43
3.1 Per capita paddy production 1956--74 in the South 69
3.2 Distribution of manufacturing output by industry 73
3.3 South Vietnam's balance of payments and US aid:
selected years 81
3.4 Distribution of foreign capital by sector, 1974 83
4.1 Paddy and rubber: area, output and yields 1956--74 94
4.2 Collectivisation of Southern agriculture 110
4.3 Paddy production by region 1975-84 113
4.4 Production of foodgrains and official procurement,
1975-':'9 115
4.5 Paddy area and yields by region, 1976 and 1979 116
4.6 Foodgrain production and official transactions 1975-83 118
4.7 Collectivisation in the Southern region in 1985 120
4.8 Mechanisation ratios 123
4.9 Indicators of labour mobilisation and productivity 125
5.1 Area, output and productivity in foodgrain production
in the North 1955-80 135
6.1 Structure of production in 1931 164
vi
List of Tables Vll
6.2 Shares of national income by sector in the DRV
1957-71 165
6.3 Structure of employment in the DRV 165
6.4 Structure of industrial production in the DRV 1955-75 166
6.5 Structure of investment in the DRV 167
6.6 Growth rates of industry by sector in the DRV 167
6.7 Index of output of major industrial products 1957-74 169
6.8 Annual average per capita production of food and cloth
in the DRV 173
6.9 Per capita output of raw materials 1965-79 184
6.10 Economic plans and performance 1976-85 190
6.11 Comparison of economic objectives of Second, Third
and Fourth Five Year Plans 192
6.12 Structure of State investment outlays 1975-84 196
6.13 Structure of industry: shares of gross output 1975-84 199
6.14 Growth rates of industrial sectors 199
6.15 Labour productivity in industry and handicrafts 200
7.1 Staple grain production and State procurement in the
DRV 219
7.2 Foodgrain marketing in advanced cooperatives of
Northern Vietnam in the 1970s 221
7.3 Distribution of food surplus and deficit by region 223
7.4 Growth rates of population, foodgrain output and live-
stock production by region 225
7.5 Structure of industrial employment in Ho Chi Minh
City in 1980 230
Appendix 3.1 Investment and output at constant 1960 prices 89
List of Figures
3.1 South Vietnam: GOP at constant 1960 prices 61
3.2 South Vietnam: GDP by sector 64
3.3a South Vietnam: indices of staple grain production 67
3.3b South Vietnam: indices of annual cash crop production 67
3.3c South Vietnam: indices of perennial cash crop
production 68
3.3d South Vietnam: indices of livestock, fisheries and
forestry production 68
3.4a South Vietnam: Index of consumer goods output 71
3.4b South Vietnam: Index of producer goods output 72
3.5 South Vietnam: balance of trade 79
3.6 South Vietnam: GOP and total domestic expenditure 84
4.1 Distribution of land ownership in the Mekong delta 101
6.1 Indices of industrial output: heavy industry 185
6.2 Indices of industrial output: agricultural inputs 186
6.3 Indices of industrial output: engineering 187
6.4 Indices of industrial output: consumer goods 188
6.5 Indices of industrial output: processing of agricultural
products 189
Vlll
Preface
In the forty years since the end of World War II, Vietnam has been the
focal point of the struggle for and against colonialism, of the war
between capitalism and socialism and, more recently, of the clash
between contending socialisms. For this reason, it is a much-studied
area of the globe, but most Western observers have looked at Viet
nam's international relations or its political and military history: the
economy has been a relatively neglected area. Yet in the decade since
the end of the Vietnam War it is, above all, the domestic developments
which deserve attention. For the first time, a nation divided in two by
the ideological schisms of the cold war has been re-unified. With a
population of 65 million it has become the twelfth largest country in the
world and is the third largest socialist country. It has mineral, agricul
tural and labour resources which could ultimately see it become a
major economic power in South-East Asia. However, it remains one of
the poorest economies in the world at present and the re-unification
process has created difficult problems for the economic development
strategy being pursued. In focusing on the theme of economic unifica
tion in this book, I hope to throw some new light on these domestic
developments and on Vietnam's potential for growth in the future.
Much of the material collected during two visits to Vietnam, in
December 1979 and in October-November 1985, has been used for this
book. I would like to thank the many officials and cadres who gave
their time to assist my research, particularly Nguyen Thi Binh who
travelled with me during the latter trip and was of enormous help in the
organisational sphere.
Most of the documentary research was carried out in the French
National Archives, Depot d'Outre-Mer at Aix-en-Provence, and in the
libraries of the University of Adelaide, Institute of Development
Studies at the University of Sussex, School of Oriental and African
Studies, London, and Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. I would like to
thank the staffs of all those libraries for their assistance, particularly
Mile Lucette Vachier of the French National Archives and Howard
Coxon at the University of Adelaide. Others who gave important help
in obtaining materials were Peter Limqueco, Irene Norlund and
Raymond Feddema.
I would also like to thank those who have made useful comments on
parts of the work, including David Marr, Bruce McFarlane, Suzy Paine
IX