Reports
SOUTH EAST ASIA - VIETNAM
Teetering on the brink of expansion
Vietnam’s gambling industry is teetering on the brink of expansion with four Integrated Resorts in the pipeline, a pilot project to permit locals into casinos and a new betting law on the cards. It is said Vietnam could be the next Macau… we take a look at what’s actually happening
Vietnam is the eastern most country on the Indochina peninsula in South East Asia. With around 95 million inhabitants it is the 14th most populous country and the eighth most populous in Asia.
Vietnam is located in South East Asia bordering Cambodia, China and Laos with water borders with the Gulf of Tailand, Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea.
With its S shape and three distinct regions, which are all different in terms of culture and economy, the country is diverse. Te north is dominated by its capital Hanoi and influenced by neighbouring China whilst the central region, with Da Nang as its major city, is mostly rural and serves also as a shipping port, whereas the south is dominated by Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong River Delta and is a key commercial centre and boasts most of the coastal resorts.
Hanoi has been the capital since reunification of the north and south in 1975. Vietnam was at one time part of Imperial China for over a millennium until an independent Vietnam was formed in 939AD.
Vietnamese royal dynasties flourished as the nation expanded geographically and politically into South East Asia until the Indochina peninsula was colonised by France in the mid 19th century. Te French imposed significant political and cultural changes on the society including a western style system of modern
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education and Roman Catholicism. Te French went on to develop a plantation economy for the export of tobacco, indigo tea and coffee, whilst ignoring the calls for a self government and civil rights. So a political movement emerged with a fight for independence.
Te French maintained their full control until World War II when the Japanese invaded. Te Japanese occupied the country in the 1940s and in 1941 the Viet Minh was formed, a communist movement which sought independence for Vietnam and the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First IndoChina War, eventually expelling the French in 1954.
Vietnam was then divided politically into two rival states – North and South Vietnam and conflict between the two intensified resulting in the Vietnam War. Tis war ended in 1975 with a North Vietnamese victory and the country was then unified under a communist government. After the war the southern Vietnamese were sent to ‘re-education camps’ and endured torture and starvation.
Today Vietnam, along with China, Cuba and Laos, is one of the world’s four remaining one- party socialist states officially adopting communism. In 1986 the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms and by the year 2000 it had established diplomatic relations with all nations and its economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world.
It still relies on its wet rice cultivation and agriculture, although Vietnam’s economy continues to been plagued with inefficiency and corruption. Today manufacturing and information technology now form a large part of the economy and it is also ranked as the eighth largest crude petroleum producer in the Asia and Pacific region.
Te poverty rate has dropped significantly, whilst the country’s GDP reached US$186bn in 2015 with a 6.7 per cent economic growth rate and after simplifying its trade rules in the 1990s the country says trade now accounts for around 150 per cent of GDP. Unemployment is around 3.3 per cent.
Tere has been a huge input into the education system and its 63 provinces are encouraged to diversify into technology.
Since the 1990s Vietnam has also become a major tourism destination assisted by state and private investment in coastal regions.
Popular tourist destinations include World
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