Challenges to the New State - Economic Issues
- Second Five-Year Plan (1976–1981) set high goals for annual growth rates for industry, agriculture, and national income, but not successful; the economy remained dominated by small-scale production, low labor productivity, unemployment, material and technological shortfalls, and insufficient food and consumer goods
- From late 1970s to early 1990s, Vietnam was member of the Comecon, and thus heavily dependent on trade with the Soviet Union and allies. But with the dissolution of the Comecon and the loss of its traditional trading partners, Vietnam forced to devalue its exchange rate to increase exports and liberalize trade.
- Doi Moi - economic reforms initiated in Vietnam in 1986 to create a "socialist-oriented market economy"