While economic freedom is declining around the world, Vietnam is bucking the general trend, with lot of work to do to join the ranks of economically free countries, said Rainer Zitelmann in his recent article published by the Washington DC-based news outlet Washington Examiner.
In the article titled “Vietnam has been a development success story’: World Bank,” the author wrote no other country of comparable size has made such strong gains in the Index of Economic Freedom in recent decades.
The author cited the International Monetary Fund and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Plus Three Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) as projecting the nation’s gross domestic product to grow by 5.8 percent and 6 percent this year, respectively.
According to the article, growth in Vietnam no longer revolves solely around agriculture as it has positioned itself in high-tech fields, including Industry 4.0, semiconductor chips, AI, and hydrogen, and is attracting international capital. Foreign direct investment amounted to US$36.6 billion in 2023.
In the 2024 Index of Economic Freedom, the Heritage Foundation notes that Vietnam is one of the rising stars, contrary to the global trend. It considers the nation’s level of taxation and public debt as positive features.
As per the foundation, Vietnam’s top individual income tax rate is 35 percent, and the top corporate tax rate is 20%. The tax burden equals 18.2 percent of GDP. Three-year government spending and budget balance averages are, respectively, 20.1 percent and -1.3 percent of GDP. Public debt amounts to 35.3 percent of GDP.
The article also featured opinions from Oliver Massmann, partner at Duane Morris Vietnam LLC, who said he sees progress in strengthening the country’s rule of law, particularly the new Credit Law.
