Vietnam

Vietnam is a tropical country with a land area of around 331,000 square kilometers (about 128,000 square miles) in Southeast Asia, and is bordered by China to the north, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) to the northwest, and Cambodia to the southwest. The population in Vietnam was approximately 89 million in 2012, ranking it among the countries with the highest population densities in the world. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is currently estimated at $1,755; the value-added shares of GDP for agriculture, industry, and services are, respectively, 20 percent, 39 percent, and 42 percent.

Rapid economic growth in Vietnam in the past 20 years has seen an impressive reduction of the poverty rate from 58 percent in 1993 to below 10 percent in 2012. However, ...