Preface

I was born in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), and I remember it well: the wide boulevards of the first district lined with large, mature trees; the elegant opera house, with its stone statues and adornments; the delicious street food, available on every corner of the city at any hour of the day; and the courtyard of my childhood home, where friends visited to study, debate politics, play games, sing pop music, and dream about the future of Vietnam.

My generation witnessed one of the most radical transformations of Ho Chi Minh City and the country as a whole. Within a couple of decades, Vietnam transformed from a war-torn country – impoverished but proud – to a middle- income country. I remember a time when bicycles were the favored mode of transportation in Ho Chi Minh City, a stark contrast to present-day streets clogged with motorcycles. Vietnam transitioned from wet, open-air markets to air-conditioned shopping malls, with fashions and price tags matching the Western world. Bookshops filled with communist books have become modern bookstores, stocking only English titles. The changes are remarkable. When I visit Vietnam, nostalgia draws me to the narrow alleys for fresh-made breakfasts or to the old woman pushing a beverage cart through traffic. I marvel at the changes, when riding a motorbike around the Saigon River, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, and Le Duan Street in the evening. The city is sprinkled with a layer of light rain, freshening the air and blurring the sharpness of a crowded, over- charged Southeast Asian metropolis.

My love for Vietnam is rooted in a specific point of view. I left the country at the beginning of the new millennium, when I was 18 years old. My strongest memories are of the 1990s, during the first wave of economic transformation. In the evening light of my family’s courtyard, friends and I would discuss the open- ing of the country, the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo, and its impact on us. We wondered with excitement and hope, what will the future hold for our country? It is this love, those experiences and memories, that inspired me to return, to witness and understand how this beautiful country grew and transformed into something that seems entirely foreign to my childhood home. What happened? Was the transformation inevitable? And now, can Vietnam find a richer, more socially inclusive, and environmentally sustainable version of itself?

My personal story of Vietnam and its development is set within the troubled backdrop of hyper-globalization. During my course of study in economics, the world economy and its orthodox view on trade was turned on its head. In college, I was taught that globalization lifts people out of poverty and hunger and into jobs that provide personal and social development. However, I now live in a world where globalization has caused tremendous inequality at multiple levels, as economic, social, and political disparity have unraveled the postwar order. The rise of populism, the distress in the developing world, and the growing resentment among the Western working class promise to bring global peace, security, and prosperity to their knees, if we fail to act bravely and confront inequality head on. The meaning of development has changed, and the masses demand not just economic growth, but social, environmental, and political inclusion in the development process.

Much has changed in Vietnam since I began my research in 2004. I document some of these changes in this book and explain how they impacted the country’s rocky road to development. In some ways, this book is about Vietnam. In others, it is about the intricate process of development more broadly, offering a means to scrutinize the complexity of development through changes that are organic, planned, and driven by special interests. Development is not just a process. It is a powerful force of economic, social, and political evolution that influences millions of lives and ways of living. I hope to capture this powerful force in explaining Vietnam’s path to development but also to project where it may lead in the future. In many ways, Vietnam is not unique; other developing countries face similar constraints and limitations. If development theory and policy are to be grounded in the experience of the countries themselves, then Vietnam offers useful lessons to the rest of the developing world.

Christine Ngoc Ngo

Lewisburg, PA

November 2019