Word: vietnamization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Vietnam's stimulus program pales in comparison to the $787-billion package approved by U.S. lawmakers last week, but the country is doing what it can to jumpstart its economy. The cash giveaway followed November's announcement of a plan to spend $1 billion to subsidize interest rates for businesses and to lower taxes in order to boost investment and create jobs...
...With the number of poor growing and reports of some going hungry, communist officials in Hanoi recently decided to hand out $12 to millions of impoverished Vietnamese on the eve of the nation's most important celebration, Tet, the Vietnamese New Year. Tet is Vietnam's equivalent of Christmas; it's a holiday of family gatherings and lavish spending on gifts. But this year, a time for giving turned out to be a time for taking. It appears that many of the cash handouts were pocketed by corrupt local officials.(See pictures from the 1979 border war between Vietnam...
...poverty line (defined by the government as those earning less than $15 a month) qualified to receive a gift of 200,000 Vietnamese dong, or about $12. Families were entitled to a maximum of $57. Though it may seem a paltry sum, the cash was a windfall for Vietnam's 10 million poorest. It was a way of helping people truly suffering from the economic crisis and a series of natural disasters that hit the country last year, says Ngo Truong Thi, the deputy director of social welfare at the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, which oversaw...
...recent global economic slowdown has put the brakes on Vietnam's decade of growth. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that Vietnam's GDP growth will slow to 5% this year from a high of 8.5% in 2007. Hit particularly hard has been the country's manufacturing sector, which helped lift millions out of poverty by providing relatively high-paying jobs. Declining orders from abroad have forced newly built factories to close, sending workers back to their villages...
...Hanoi on its own can't change the course of global events, says Alex Warren-Rodriguez, economic policy advisor at the United Nations Development Program in Hanoi. Vietnam is too dependent upon what is happening in the U.S. and Europe. "Even if you reduce interest rates to stimulate investment, that's not going to happen because there is nothing to invest in," he says. "They can do very little to stimulate the economy...