Vietnam and the regional crisis: the case of a "Late Latecomer"

The paper explores the linkages between Vietnam and the regional economy before and after the East Asian financial crisis of 1997 and 1998, indicating that the country is more closely associated with the region than normally assumed. Thus, key indicators, such as falling foreign direct investment inflows, should be understood in the broader frame of regional contingencies, and not be simplistically explained as investors' discontent (i.e., in order to pressure Vietnamese authorities into implementing a more orthodox neo-liberal agenda). And in a post-crisis regional economic reorganisation (including a restructuring of the so-called 'flying geese' pattern) Vietnam's chances of benefitting from closer integration in the world economy will depend on a clearcut industrial and trade policy, rather than on embarking a so-called 'neutral trade regime'. Preliminary evidence seems to indicate that Vietnam can successfully exploit market niches opened up by postcrisis regional economic reorganisation, thus offering some optimism for the country's immediate economic future.