Algerian weekly praises Vietnam’s economic policy

The article said the country of President Ho Chi Minh has created a “socialist-oriented market economy”, bringing itself an annual average growth rate of 5 percent while it has a population of 86 million but enjoys no special advantage of natural resources.

Over the past 20 years of implementing its open-door policy, Vietnam has gradually reduced its poverty rate from 70 percent to 11 percent, the paper noted.

Vietnam joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1995 and reached a bilateral trade agreement with the US in 1999. The country became a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 2007, which drove up its exports and helped it attract US$11 billion in foreign investment every year, four times higher than Algeria.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party, Vietnam has maintained private firms despite the impact of the regional financial crisis in 1997, and its efforts were applauded by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the paper added.