Vietnamese Flag

The Menas Associates country fact file page is devised to provide our readers with a checklist of information about the history, people, government, economy, geography, military and transnational issues affecting each one of the countries we write about.

Time: UTC+7
Area: 331,690 km ²
Population: 85,789,573
Currency: Dong (VND)
Capital: Hanoi
Official language: Vietnamese
Geography: Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia
Government: Communist state
President: Nguyen Minh Triet (since 2006)
Parliament: unicameral; National Assembly (Quoc Hoi)
Military: service is compulsory for 18 year old males
Religion: Buddhist (9.3%), Catholic (6.7%), Hoa Hao (1.5%), Cao Dai (1.1%), Protestant (0.5%), Muslim (0.1%), none (80.8%)
Demographics: 58 provinces
Exports: crude oil, marine products, rice, coffee, rubber, tea, garments, shoes
Export partners: US (18.9%), Japan (13.6%), China (7.2%), Australia (6.7%), Singapore (4.2%)
Imports: machinery and equipment, petroleum products, fertilizer, steel products, raw cotton, grain, cement, motorcycles
Import partners: China (22.4%), Singapore (13.4%), Taiwan (12%), South Korea (10.1%), Thailand (7%)
Economy: since the enactment of Vietnam's "doi moi" (renovation) policy in 1986, Vietnamese authorities have committed to increased economic liberalization and enacted structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive, export-driven industries
Electricity consumption/production/exports/imports: 74.5 billion kWh, 86.9 billion kWh, 535 million kWh, 3.85 billion kWh,
Oil consumption/production/exports/imports: 276,400 bbl/day, 305,000 bbl/day, 29,400 bbl/day, 134,200 bbl/day
Natural gas consumption/production/exports/imports: 8.1 billion m³, 7.9 billion m³, 0 m³, 380,000 m³
Natural resources: phosphates, coal, manganese, bauxite, chromate, offshore oil and gas deposits, timber, hydropower
Agriculture products: paddy rice, coffee, rubber, cotton, tea, pepper, soybeans, cashews, sugar cane, peanuts, bananas, poultry, fish, seafood
Concerns: small-scale protests from various domestic groups, connected to land-use issues and the lack of equitable mechanisms for resolving disputes.

* All the above data is selected from statistical review journals, published in the latter part of 2008/9. Therefore, please note that some facts/figures may vary according to source/time of documentation.