Vietnam, offificially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, [n 3] is a country in SoutheastAsia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of 311,699 square kilometres (120,348 sq mi) and population of 96 million, making it the world's fififteenth-most populous country. Vietnam borders China to the north, Laos and Cambodia to the west, and shares maritime borders with Thailand through the Gulf of Thailand, and the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia throughthe South China Sea. Its capital is Hanoi and largest city Ho Chi Minh City. [n 4]

Vietnam was inhabited by the Paleolithic age, with states established in the fifirst millennium BC on the Red River Delta in modernday northern Vietnam. The Han dynasty annexed Northern and Central Vietnam under Chinese rule from 111 BC, until the fifirstdynasty emerged in 939. Successive monarchical dynasties absorbed Chinese inflfluences through Confucianism and Buddhism,and expanded southward to the Mekong Delta, conquering Champa. The Nguyễn—the last imperial dynasty—fell to Frenchcolonisation in 1887. Following the August Revolution, the nationalist Viet Minh under the leadership of communist revolutionary HoChi Minh proclaimed independence from France in 1945.

Vietnam went through prolonged warfare in the 20th century. After World War II, France returned to reclaim colonial power in theFirst Indochina War, from which Vietnam emerged victorious in 1954. The Vietnam War began shortly after, during which the nationwas divided into communist North supported by the Soviet Union and China, and anti-communist South supported by the UnitedStates. Upon the North Vietnamese victory in 1975, Vietnam reunifified as a unitary socialist state under the Communist Party ofVietnam (CPV) in 1976. An ineffective planned economy, a trade embargo by the West, and wars with Cambodia and Chinacrippled the country further. In 1986, the CPV initiated economic and political reforms similar to the Chinese economic reform,transforming the country to a market-oriented economy. The reforms facilitated Vietnamese reintegration into global economy andpolitics.

A developing country with a lower-middle-income economy, Vietnam is one of the fastest growing economies of the 21st century,with GDP predicted to rival developed nations by 2050, despite high levels of corruption, censorship and a poor human rightsrecord; the country ranks among the lowest in international measurements of civil liberties, freedom of the press and freedom ofreligion and ethnic minorities. It is part of international and intergovernmental institutions including the ASEAN, the APEC, theCPTPP, the Non-Aligned Movement, the OIF, and the WTO. It has assumed a seat on the United Nations Security Council twice.

Geography

Vietnam is located on the eastern Indochinese Peninsula between the latitudes 8° and 24°N, and the longitudes 102° and 110°E. It covers a total area of approximately 331,212 km2 (127,882 sq mi).[n 7] The combined length of the country's land boundaries is 4,639 km(2,883 mi), and its coastline is 3,444 km (2,140 mi) long.[167] At its narrowest point in the central Quảng Bình Province, the country is as

little as 50 kilometres (31 mi) across, though it widens to around 600 kilometres (370 mi) in the north.[168] Vietnam's land is mostly hillyand densely forested, with level land covering no more than 20%. Mountains account for 40% of the country's land area,[169] and tropical forests cover around 42%.[170] The Red River Delta in the north, a flflat, roughly triangular region covering 15,000 km2 (5,792 sq mi),[171]is smaller but more intensely developed and more densely populated than the Mekong River Delta in the south. Once an inlet of the Gulf of Tonkin, it has been fifilled in over the millennia by riverine alluvial deposits. [172][173] The delta, covering about 40,000 km2 (15,444 sq mi), is a low-level plain no more than 3 metres (9.8 ft) above sea level at any point. It is criss-crossed by a maze of rivers and

canals, which carry so much sediment that the delta advances 60 to 80 metres (196.9 to 262.5 ft) into the sea every year.[174][175] The exclusive economic zone of Vietnam covers 417,663 km2 (161,261 sq mi) in the South China Sea. [176]

Southern Vietnam is divided into coastal lowlands, the mountains of the Annamite Range, andextensive forests. Comprising fifive relatively flflat plateaus of basalt soil, the highlands account for16% of the country's arable land and 22% of its total forested land.[177] The soil in much of the southern part of Vietnam is relatively lowin nutrients as a result of intense cultivation.[178] Several minor earthquakes have been recorded in the past. Most have occurred nearthe northern Vietnamese border in the provinces of Điện Biên, Lào Cai and Sơn La, while some have been recorded offshore of thecentral part of the country.[179][180] The northern part of the country consists mostly of highlands and the Red River Delta. Fansipan (alsoknown as Phan Xi Păng), which is located in Lào Cai Province, is the highest mountain in Vietnam, standing 3,143 m (10,312 ft) high.[181]From north to south Vietnam, the country also has numerous islands; Phú Quốc is the largest.[182] The Hang Sơn Đoòng Cave isconsidered the largest known cave passage in the world since its discovery in 2009. The Ba Bể Lake and Mekong River are the largestlake and longest river in the country.

Climate

 

Due to differences in latitude and the marked variety in topographical relief, Vietnam's climate tends to vary considerably for each region.[186] During the winter or dry season, extending roughly from November to April, the monsoon winds usually blow from thenortheast along the Chinese coast and across the Gulf of Tonkin, picking up considerable moisture.[187] The average annual temperatureis generally higher in the plains than in the mountains, especially in southern Vietnam compared to the north. Temperatures vary less in the southern plains around Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, ranging from between 21 and 35 °C (69.8 and 95.0 °F) over the year.[188] In Hanoi and the surrounding areas of Red River Delta, the temperatures are much lower between 15 and 33 °C (59.0 and

91.4 °F).[188] Seasonal variations in the mountains, plateaus, and the northernmost areas are much more dramatic, with temperaturesvarying from 3 °C (37.4 °F) in December and January to 37 °C (98.6 °F) in July and August.[189] During winter, snow occasionally fallsover the highest peaks of the far northern mountains near the Chinese border.[190] Vietnam receives high rates of precipitation in the form

of rainfall with an average amount from 1,500 mm (59 in) to 2,000 mm (79 in) during the monsoon seasons; this often causes flflooding,especially in the cities with poor drainage systems.[191] The country is also affected by tropical depressions, tropical storms and typhoons. [191] Vietnam is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, with 55% of its population living in low-elevation coastal areas.

Biodiversity

Main articles: Wildlife of Vietnam, Environmental issues in Vietnam, List of endangered species in Vietnam, andProtected areas of VietnamAs the country is located within the Indomalayan realm, Vietnam is one oftwenty-fifive countries considered to possess a uniquely high level ofbiodiversity. This was noted in the country's National Environmental ConditionReport in 2005.[194] It is ranked 16th worldwide in biological diversity, beinghome to approximately 16% of the world's species. 15,986 species of flflora have been identifified in the country, of which 10% areendemic. Vietnam's fauna includes 307 nematode species, 200 oligochaeta, 145 acarina, 113 springtails, 7,750 insects, 260 reptiles, and120 amphibians. There are 840 birds and 310 mammals are found in Vietnam, of which 100 birds and 78 mammals are endemic.[194]

Vietnam has two World Natural Heritage Sites—the Hạ Long Bay and Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park—together with nine biospherereserves, including Cần Giờ Mangrove Forest, Cát Tiên, Cát Bà, Kiên Giang, the Red River Delta, Mekong Delta, Western Nghệ An, CàMau, and Cu Lao Cham Marine Park. [195][196][197]Vietnam is also home to 1,438 species of freshwater microalgae, constituting 9.6% of all microalgae species, as well as 794 aquaticinvertebrates and 2,458 species of sea fifish.[194] In recent years, 13 genera, 222 species, and 30 taxa of flflora have been newly describedin Vietnam.[194] Six new mammal species, including the saola, giant muntjac and Tonkin snub-nosed monkey have also been discovered,along with one new bird species, the endangered Edwards's pheasant. [198] In the late 1980s, a small population of Javan rhinoceros wasfound in Cát Tiên National Park. However, the last individual of the species in Vietnam was reportedly shot in 2010.[199] In agriculturalgenetic diversity, Vietnam is one of the world's twelve original cultivar centres. The Vietnam National Cultivar Gene Bank preserves 12,300 cultivars of 115 species.[194] TheVietnamese government spent US$49.07 million on the preservation of biodiversity in 2004 alone and has established 126 conservation areas, including 30 national parks. [194]

In Vietnam, wildlife poaching has become a major concern. In 2000, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Education for Nature– Vietnam was founded to instill in the population the importance of wildlife conservation in the country.[200] In the years that followed,another NGO called GreenViet was formed by Vietnamese youngsters for the enforcement of wildlife protection. Through collaborationbetween the NGOs and local authorities, many local poaching syndicates were crippled by their leaders' arrests.[200] A study released in2018 revealed Vietnam is a destination for the illegal export of rhinoceros horns from South Africa due to the demand for them as amedicine and a status symbol.[201][202]

The main environmental concern that persists in Vietnam today is the legacy of the use of the chemical herbicide Agent Orange, whichcontinues to cause birth defects and many health problems in the Vietnamese population. In the southern and central areas affectedmost by the chemical's use during the Vietnam War, nearly 4.8 million Vietnamese people have been exposed to it and suffered from its

effects.[203][204][205] In 2012, approximately 50 years after the war,[206] the US began a US$43 million joint clean-up project in the formerchemical storage areas in Vietnam to take place in stages.[204][207] Following the completion of the fifirst phase in Đà Nẵng in late2017,[208] the US announced its commitment to clean other sites, especially in the heavily impacted site of Biên Hòa, which is four times

larger than the previously treated site, at an estimated cost of $390 million.[209]The Vietnamese government spends over VNĐ10 trillion each year ($431.1 million) for monthly allowances and the physical rehabilitationof victims of the chemicals.[210] In 2018, the Japanese engineering group Shimizu Corporation, working with Vietnamese military, built aplant for the treatment of soil polluted by Agent Orange. Plant construction costs were funded by the company itself.[211][212] One of thelong-term plans to restore southern Vietnam's damaged ecosystems is through the use of reforestation efforts. TheVietnamese

government began doing this at the end of the war. It started by replanting mangrove forests in the Mekong Delta regions and in Cần Giờ outside Hồ Chí Minh City, wheremangroves are important to ease(though not eliminate) flflood conditions during monsoon seasons.[213] The country had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of5.35/10, ranking it 104th globally out of 172 countries.[214]

Apart from herbicide problems, arsenic in the ground water in the Mekong and Red River Deltas has also become a major concern.[215][216] And most notoriously, unexplodedordnaces (UXO) pose dangers to humans and wildlife—another bitter legacy from the long wars.[217] As part of the continuous campaign to demine/remove UXOs, severalinternational bomb removal agencies from the United Kingdom, [218] Denmark, [219] South Korea[220] and the US[221] have been providing assistance. The Vietnam governmentspends over VNĐ1 trillion ($44 million) annually on demining operations and additional hundreds of billions of đồng for treatment, assistance, rehabilitation, vocational trainingand resettlement of the victims of UXOs.[222] In 2017 the Chinese government also removed 53,000 land mines and explosives left over from the war between the two countries,in an area of 18.4 km2 (7.1 sq mi) in the Chinese province of Yunnan bordering the China–Vietnam border.

Economy

Throughout the history of Vietnam, its economy has been based largely on agriculture—primarily wet rice cultivation. [262] Bauxite, animportant material in the production of aluminium, is mined in central Vietnam.[263] Since reunifification,the country's economy is shaped primarily by the CPV through Five Year Plans decided upon at theplenary sessions of the Central Committee and national congresses.[264] The collectivisation of farms,factories, and capital goods was carried out as part of the establishment of central planning, withmillions of people working for state enterprises. Under strict state control, Vietnam's economy continuedto be plagued by ineffificiency, corruption in state-owned enterprises, poor quality andunderproduction.[265][266][267] With the decline in economic aid from its main trading partner, the SovietUnion, following the erosion of the Eastern bloc in the late 1980s, and the subsequent collapse of theSoviet Union, as well as the negative impacts of the post-war trade embargo imposed by the UnitedStates,[268][269] Vietnam began to liberalise its trade by devaluing its exchange rate to increase exportsand embarked on a policy of economic development.[270]

In 1986, the Sixth National Congress of the CPV introduced socialist-oriented market economic reforms as part of the Đổi Mới reformprogram. Private ownership began to be encouraged in industry, commerce and agriculture and state enterprises were restructured tooperate under market constraints.[271][272] This led to the fifive-year economic plans being replaced by the socialist-oriented marketmechanism.[273] As a result of these reforms, Vietnam achieved approximately 8% annual gross domestic product (GDP) growthbetween 1990 and 1997.[27][275] The United States ended its economic embargo against Vietnam in early 1994.[276] Although the 1997Asian fifinancial crisis caused an economic slowdown to 4–5% growth per year, its economy began to recover in 1999,[271] and grew ataround 7% per year from 2000 to 2005, one of the growths in the world.[277][278] According to the General Statistics Offifice of Vietnam(GSO), growth remained strong despite the late-2000s global recession, holding at 6.8% in 2010. Vietnam's year-on-year inflflation ratereached 11.8% in December 2010 and the currency, the Vietnamese đồng, was devalued three times.[279][280]

Deep poverty, defifined as the percentage of the population living on less than $1 per day, has declined signifificantly in Vietnam and therelative poverty rate is now less than that of China, India and the Philippines. [281] This decline can be attributed to equitable economicpolicies aimed at improving living standards and preventing the rise of inequality. [282] These policies have included egalitarian landdistribution during the initial stages of the Đổi Mới program, investment in poorer remote areas, and subsidising of education andhealthcare.[283][284] Since the early 2000s, Vietnam has applied sequenced trade liberalisation, a two-track approach opening somesectors of the economy to international markets.[282][285] Manufacturing, information technology and high-tech industries now form a largeand fast-growing part of the national economy. Although Vietnam is a relative newcomer to the oil industry, it is the third-largest oilproducer in Southeast Asia with a total 2011 output of 318,000 barrels per day (50,600 m3/d).[286] In 2010, Vietnam was ranked as theeighth-largest crude petroleum producer in the Asia and Pacifific region.[287] The US bought the highest amount of Vietnam's exports,[288]

while goods from China were the most popular Vietnamese import.[289]

According to a December 2005 forecast by Goldman Sachs, the Vietnamese economy will become the world's 21st-largest by 2025, [290]with an estimated nominal GDP of $436 billion and a nominal GDP per capita of $4,357.[291] Based on fifindings by the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) in 2012, the unemployment rate in Vietnam was 4.46%,[5] the nominal GDP US$138 billion, and a nominal GDP percapita $1,527.[5] The HSBC also predicted that Vietnam's total GDP would surpass those of Norway, Singapore and Portugal by2050.[291][292] Another forecast by PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2008 stated Vietnam could be the fastest-growing of the world's emergingeconomies by 2025, with a potential growth of almost 10% per year in real dollar terms.[293] Besides the primary sector economy, tourismhas contributed signifificantly to Vietnam's economic growth with 7.94 million foreign visitors recorded in 2015.

Agriculture

As a result of several land reform measures, Vietnam has become a major exporter of agricultural products. It is now the world's largestproducer of cashew nuts, with a one-third global share;[295] the largest producer of black pepper, accounting for one-third of the world'smarket;[296] and the second-largest rice exporter in the world after Thailand since the 1990s.[297] Subsequently, Vietnam is also theworld's second largest exporter of coffee. [298] The country has the highest proportion of land use for permanent crops together with otherstates in the Greater Mekong Subregion. [299] Other primary exports include tea, rubber and fifishery products. Agriculture's share ofVietnam's GDP has fallen in recent decades, declining from 42% in 1989 to 20% in 2006 as production in other sectors of the economyhas risen.

Seafood

The overall fifisheries production of Vietnam from capture fifisheries and aquaculture was 5.6 million MT in 2011 and 6.7 million MT in 2016.The output of Vietnam's fifisheries sector has seen strong growth, which could be attributed to the continued expansion of the aquaculture sub-sector.[300]

Science and technology

Main article: Science and technology in Vietnam

In 2010, Vietnam's total state spending on science and technology amounted to roughly 0.45% of its GDP.[303] Since the dynastic era,Vietnamese scholars have developed many academic fifields especially in social sciences and humanities. Vietnam has a millenniumdeep legacy of analytical histories, such as the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư of Ngô Sĩ Liên. Vietnamese monks, led by the abdicated EmperorTrần Nhân Tông, developed the Trúc Lâm Zen branch of philosophy in the 13th century.[304] Arithmetic and geometry have been widelytaught in Vietnam since the 15th century, using the textbook Đại thành toán pháp by Lương Thế Vinh. Lương Thế Vinh introducedVietnam to the notion of zero, while Mạc Hiển Tích used the term số ẩn (Eng: "unknown/secret/hidden number") to refer to negativenumbers. Furthermore, Vietnamese scholars produced numerous encyclopaedias, such as Lê Quý Đôn's Vân đài loại ngữ.In modern times, Vietnamese scientists have made many signifificant contributions in various fifields of study, most notably in mathematics.Hoàng Tụy pioneered the applied mathematics fifield of global optimisation in the 20th century,[305] while Ngô Bảo Châu won the 2010Fields Medal for his proof of fundamental lemma in the theory of automorphic forms. [306][307] Since the establishment of the VietnamAcademy of Science and Technology (VAST) by the government in 1975, the country is working to develop its fifirst national space flflightprogram especially after the completion of the infrastructure at the Vietnam Space Centre (VSC) in 2018.[308][309] Vietnam has also madesignifificant advances in the development of robots, such as the TOPIO humanoid model.[301][302] One of Vietnam's main messaging apps,Zalo, was developed by Vương Quang Khải, a Vietnamese hacker who later worked with the country's largest information technology service company, the FPT Group. [310]According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Vietnam devoted 0.19% of its GDP to science research and development in 2011.[311]Vietnam was ranked 44th in the Global Innovation Index in 2021, it has increased its ranking considerably since 2012, where it wasranked 76th.[312][313][314][315] Between 2005 and 2014, the number of Vietnamese scientifific publications recorded in Thomson Reuters'Web of Science increased at a rate well above the average for Southeast Asia, albeit from a modest starting point.[316] Publications focusmainly on life sciences (22%), physics (13%) and engineering (13%), which is consistent with recent advances in the production ofdiagnostic equipment and shipbuilding.[316] Almost 77% of all papers published between 2008 and 2014 had at least one internationalco-author. The autonomy which Vietnamese research centres have enjoyed since the mid-1990s has enabled many of them to operateas quasi-private organisations, providing services such as consulting and technology development.[316] Some have 'spun off' from thelarger institutions to form their own semi-private enterprises, fostering thetransfer of public sector science and technology personnel tothese semi-private establishments. One comparatively new university, the Tôn Đức Thắng University which was built in 1997, hasalready set up 13 centres for technology transfer and services that together produce 15% of university revenue. Many of these researchcentres serve as valuable intermediaries bridging public research institutions, universities, and fifirms.

Tourism

Main article: Tourism in Vietnam

Tourism is an important element of economic activity in the nation, contributing 7.5% of the total GDP. Vietnam hosted roughly 13 milliontourists in 2017, an increase of 29.1% over the previous year, making it one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the world. Thevast majority of the tourists in the country, some 9.7 million, came from Asia; namely China (4 million), South Korea (2.6 million), andJapan (798,119).[317] Vietnam also attracts large numbers of visitors from Europe, with almost 1.9 million visitors in 2017; most Europeanvisitors came from Russia (574,164), followed by the United Kingdom (283,537), France (255,396), and Germany (199,872). Othersignifificant international arrivals by nationality include the United States (614,117) and Australia (370,438).[317]The most visited destinations in Vietnam is the largest city, Ho Chi Minh City, with over 5.8 million international arrivals, followed by Hanoiwith 4.6 million and Hạ Long, including Hạ Long Bay with 4.4 million arrivals. All three are ranked in the top 100 most visited cities in thworld.[318] Vietnam is home to eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. In 2018, Travel + Leisure ranked Hội An as one of the world's top 15best destinations to visit.

Transport

Main articles: Transport in Vietnam, Rail transport in Vietnam, and List of airports in Vietnam

Much of Vietnam's modern transportation network can trace its roots to the French colonial era when it was used to facilitate the transportation of raw materials to its main ports.

It was extensively expanded and modernised following the partition of Vietnam.[320] Vietnam's road system includes national roads administered at the central level, provincialroads managed at the provincial level, district roads managed at the district level, urban roads managed by cities and towns and commune roads managed at the communelevel.[321] In 2010, Vietnam's road system had a total length of about 188,744 kilometres (117,280 mi) of which 93,535 kilometres (58,120 mi) are asphalt roads comprisingnational, provincial and district roads.[321] The length of the national road system is about 15,370 kilometres (9,550 mi) with 15,085 kilometres (9,373 mi) of its length paved. Theprovincial road system has around 27,976 kilometres (17,383 mi) of paved roads while 50,474 kilometres (31,363 mi) district roads are paved.[321]Bicycles, motorcycles and motor scooters remain the most popular forms of road transport in the country, a legacy of the French, thoughthe number of privately owned cars has been increasing in recent years.[322] Public buses operated by private companies are the mainmode of long-distance travel for much of the population. Road accidents remain the major safety issue of Vietnamese transportation withan average of 30 people losin their lives daily.[323] Traffific congestion is a growing problem in both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City especiallywith the growth of individual car ownership.[324][325] Vietnam's primary cross-country rail service is the Reunifification Express from Ho ChiMinh City to Hanoi, a distance of nearly 1,726 kilometres (1,072 mi).[326] From Hanoi, railway lines branch out to the northeast, north, andwest; the eastbound line runs from Hanoi to Hạ Long Bay, the northbound line from Hanoi to Thái Nguyên, and the northeast line fromHanoi to Lào Cai. In 2009, Vietnam and Japan signed a deal to build a high-speed railway—shinkansen (bullet train)—using Japanesetechnology.[327] Vietnamese engineers were sent to Japan to receive training in the operation and maintenance of high-speed trains.[328]

The planned railway will be a 1,545 kilometres (960 mi)-long express route serving a total of 23 stations, including Hanoi and Ho ChiMinh City, with 70% of its route running on bridges and through tunnels.[329][330] The trains will travel at a maximum speed of 350kilometres (220 mi) per hour.[330][331] Plans for the high-speed rail line, however, have been postponed after the Vietnamese government

decided to prioritise the development of both the Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City metros and expand road networks instead.[326][332][333]Vietnam operates 20 major civil airports, including three international gateways: Noi Bai in Hanoi, Da Nang International Airport in ĐàNẵng and Tan Son Nhat in Ho Chi Minh City. Tan Son Nhat is the country's largest airport handling the majority of international passenger

traffific.[334] According to a government-approved plan, Vietnam will have another seven international airports by 2025, including VinhInternational Airport, Phu Bai International Airport, Cam Ranh International Airport, Phu Quoc International Airport, Cat Bi InternationalAirport, Can Tho International Airport, and Long Thanh International Airport. The planned Long Thanh International Airport will have an

annual service capacity of 100 million passengers once it becomes fully operational in 2025.[335] Vietnam Airlines, the state-ownednational airline, maintains a flfleet of 86 passenger aircraft and aims to operate 170 by 2020.[336] Several private airlines also operate inVietnam, including Air Mekong, Bamboo Airways, Jetstar Pacifific Airlines, VASCO and VietJet Air. As a coastal country, Vietnam has

many major sea ports, including Cam Ranh, Đà Nẵng, Hải Phòng, Ho Chi Minh City, Hạ Long, Qui Nhơn, Vũng Tàu, Cửa Lò and NhaTrang. Further inland, the country's extensive network of rivers plays a key role in rural transportation with over 47,130 kilometres(29,290 mi) of navigable waterways carrying ferries, barges and water taxis. 

Energy

Main articles: Energy in Vietnam and List of power stations in Vietnam

Vietnam's energy sector is dominated largely by the state-controlled Vietnam Electricity Group(EVN). As of 2017, EVN made up about 61.4% of the country's power generation system with atotal power capacity of 25,884 MW. [339] Other energy sources are PetroVietnam (4,435 MW),Vinacomin (1,785 MW) and 10,031 MW from build–operate–transfer (BOT) investors.[340]Most of Vietnam's power is generated by either hydropower or fossil fuel power such as coal, oil and gas, while diesel, small hydropowerand renewable energy supplies the remainder.[340] The Vietnamese government had planned to develop a nuclear reactor as the path toestablish another source for electricity from nuclear power. The plan was abandoned in late 2016 when a majority of the NationalAssembly voted to oppose the project due to widespread public concern over radioactive contamination. [341]The household gas sector in Vietnam is dominated by PetroVietnam, which controls nearly 70% of the country's domestic market forliquefified petroleum gas (LPG).[342] Since 2011, the company also operates fifive renewable energy power plants including the Nhơn TrạchCoordinates:

 

liquefified petroleum gas (LPG).[342] Since 2011, the company also operates fifive renewable energy power plants including the Nhơn Trạch2 Thermal Power Plant (750 MW), Phú Quý Wind Power Plant (6 MW), Hủa Na Hydro-power Plant (180 MW), Dakdrinh Hydro-powerPlant (125 MW) and Vũng Áng 1 Thermal Power Plant (1,200 MW).[343]According to statistics from British Petroleum (BP), Vietnam is listed among the 52 countries that have proven crude oil reserves. In 2015 the reserve was approximately4.4 billion barrels ranking Vietnam fifirst place in Southeast Asia, while the proven gas reserves were about 0.6 trillion cubic metres (tcm) and ranking it third in Southeast Asia

after Indonesia and Malaysia.

Water supply and sanitation

Main article: Water supply and sanitation in Vietnam

Vietnam has 2,360 rivers with an average annual discharge of 310 billion m³. The rainy season accounts for 70% of the year'sdischarge.[349] Most of the country's urban water supply systems have been developed without proper management within the last 10years. Based on a 2008 survey by the Vietnam Water Supply and Sewerage Association (VWSA), existing water production capacityexceeded demand, but service coverage is still sparse. Most of the clean water supply infrastructure is not widely developed. It is onlyavailable to a small proportion of the population with about one third of 727 district towns having some form of piped water supply.[350]There is also concern over the safety of existing water resources for urban and rural water supply systems. Most industrial factoriesrelease their untreated wastewater directly into the water sources. Where the government does not take measures to address the issue,most domestic wastewater is discharged, untreated, back into the environment and pollutes the surface water. [350]

In recent years, there have been some efforts and collaboration between local and foreign universities to develop access to safe water inthe country by introducing water fifiltration systems. There is a growing concern among local populations over the serious public healthissues associated with water contamination caused by pollution as well as the high levels of arsenic in groundwater sources.[351] Thegovernment of Netherlands has been providing aid focusing its investments mainly on water-related sectors including water treatmentprojects.[352][353][354] Regarding sanitation, 78% of Vietnam's population has access to "improved" sanitation—94% of the urbanpopulation and 70% of the rural population. However, there are still about 21 million people in the country lacking access to "improved"sanitation according to a survey conducted in 2015.[355] In 2018, the construction ministry said the country's water supply, and drainageindustry had been applying hi-tech methods and information technology (IT) to sanitation issues but faced problems like limited funding,climate change, and pollution.[356] The health ministry has also announced that water inspection units will be established nationwidebeginning in June 2019. Inspections are to be conducted without notice, since there have been many cases involving health issuescaused by poor or polluted water supplies as well unhygienic conditions reported every year.[357]

Health

Main article: Health in Vietnam

By 2015, 97% of the population had access to improved water sources.[358] In 2016, Vietnam's national life expectancy stood at 80.9years for women and 71.5 for men, and the infant mortality rate was 17 per 1,000 live births.[359][360][361] Despite these improvements,

malnutrition is still common in rural provinces.[165] Since the partition, North Vietnam has established a public health system that hasreached down to the hamlet level.[362] After the national reunifification in 1975, a nationwide health service was established.[165] In the late1980s, the quality of healthcare declined to some degree as a result of budgetary constraints, a shift of responsibility to the provinces and

the introduction of charges.[283] Inadequate funding has also contributed to a shortage of nurses, midwives and hospital beds; in 2000,Vietnam had only 24.7 hospital beds per 10,000 people before declining to 23.7 in 2005 as stated in the annual report of VietnameseHealth Ministry. [363] The controversial use of herbicides as a chemical weapon by the US military during the war left tangible, long-termimpacts upon the Vietnamese people that persist in the country today.[364][365] For instance, it led to three million Vietnamese peoplesuffering health problems, one million birth defects caused directly by exposure to the chemical and 24% of Vietnam's land beingdefoliated.[366]

Since the early 2000s, Vietnam has made signifificant progress in combating malaria. The malaria mortality rate fell to about fifive per cent of its 1990s equivalent by 2005 after thecountry introducedimproved antimalarial drugs and treatment.[367] Tuberculosis (TB) cases, however, are on the rise. TB has become the second most infectious disease in thecountry after respiratory-related illness. [368] With an intensifified vaccination program, better hygiene and foreign assistance, Vietnam hopes to reduce sharply the number of TBcases and new TB infections.[369] In 2004, government subsidies covering about 15% of health care expenses.[370] That year, the United States announced Vietnam would beone of 15 states to receive funding as part of its global AIDS relief plan.[371] By the following year, Vietnam had diagnosed 101,291 human immunodefificiency virus (HIV) cases, ofwhich 16,528 progressed to acquired immune defificiency syndrome (AIDS); 9,554 have died.[372] The actual number of HIV-positive individuals is estimated to be much higher.

On average between 40 and 50 new infections are reported daily in the country. In 2007, 0.4% of the population was estimated to be infected with HIV and the fifigure hasremained stable since 2005.[373] More global aid is being delivered through The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to fifight the spread of the disease in thecountry.[369] In September 2018, the Hanoi People's Committee urged the citizens of the country to stop eating dog and cat meat as it can cause diseases like rabies andleptospirosis. More than 1,000 stores in the capital city of Hanoi were found to be selling both meats. The decision prompted positive comments among Vietnamese on socialmedia, though some noted that the consumption of dog meat will remain an ingrained habit among many people.

Languages

The national language of the country is Vietnamese, a tonal Austroasiatic language (Mon–Khmer), which is spoken by the majority of the population. In its early history,Vietnamese writing used Chinese characters (chữ Hán) before a different meaning set of Chinese characters known as chữ Nôm developed between the 7th–13thcentury.[422][423][424] The folk epic Truyện Kiều (The Tale of Kieu, originally known as Đoạn trường tân thanh) by Nguyễn Du was written in chữ Nôm. [425] Chữ Quốc ngữ, theRomanised Vietnamese alphabet, was developed in the 17th century by Jesuit missionaries such as Francisco de Pina and Alexandre de Rhodes by using the alphabets of theRomance languages, particularly the Portuguese alphabet, which later became widely used through Vietnamese institutions during the French colonial period.[422][426]Vietnam's minority groups speak a variety of languages, including: Tày, Mường, Cham, Khmer, Chinese, Nùng and Hmong. The Montagnard peoples of the Central Highlandsalso speak a number of distinct languages, some belonging to the Austroasiatic and others to the Malayo-Polynesian language families.[427] In recent years, a number of signlanguages have developed in the major cities.

The French language, a legacy of colonial rule, is spoken by many educated Vietnamese as a second language, especially among theolder generation and those educated in the former South Vietnam, where it was a principal language in administration, education andcommerce. Vietnam remains a full member of the International Organisation of the Francophonie (La Francophonie) and education hasrevived some interest in the language.[428] Russian, and to a lesser extent German, Czech and Polish are known among some northernVietnamese whose families had ties with the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War.[429] With improved relations with Western countries andrecent reforms in Vietnamese administration, English has been increasingly used as a second language and the study of English is nowobligatory in most schools either alongside or in place of French.[430][431] The popularity of Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin Chinesehave also grown as the country's ties with other East Asian nations have strengthened.[432][433][434] Third-graders can choose one ofseven languages (English, Russian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German) as their fifirst foreign language.[435][436][437] InVietnam's high school graduation examinations, students can take their foreign language exam in one of the above-mentionedlanguages.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Vietnam

Vietnam's culture has developed over the centuries from indigenous ancient Đông Sơn culture with wet rice cultivation as its economicbase.[32][35] Some elements of the nation's culture have Chinese origins, drawing on elements of Confucianism, Mahāyāna Buddhism andTaoism in its traditional political system and philosophy.[439][440] Vietnamese society is structured around làng (ancestral villages);[441] allVietnamese mark a common ancestral anniversary on the tenth day of the third lunar month. [442][443] The inflfluence of Chinese culture suchas the Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien and Hainanese cultures is more evident in the north where Buddhism is strongly entwined with popularculture.[444] Despite this, there are Chinatowns in the south, such as in Chợ Lớn, where many Chinese have intermarried with Kinh and areindistinguishable among them.[445] In the central and southern parts of Vietnam, traces of Champa and Khmer culture are evidencedthrough the remains of ruins, artefacts as well withintheirpopulation as the successor of the ancient Sa Huỳnh culture. [446][447] In recentcenturies, Western cultures have become popular among recent generations of Vietnamese.[440]The traditional focuses of Vietnamese culture are based on humanity (nhân nghĩa) and harmony (hòa) inwhich family and community values are highly regarded.[444] Vietnam reveres a number of key culturalsymbols,[448] such as the Vietnamese dragon which is derived from crocodile and snake imagery; Vietnam'snational father, Lạc Long Quân is depicted as a holy dragon.[442][449][450] The lạc is a holy bird representingVietnam's national mother Âu Cơ. Other prominent images that are also revered are the turtle, buffalo andhorse. [451] Many Vietnamese also believe in the supernatural and spiritualism where illness can be broughton by a curse or sorcery or caused by non-observance of a religious ethic. Traditional medical practitioners,amulets and other forms of spiritual protection and religious practices may be employed to treat the ill person.[452] In the modern era, the cultural life of Vietnam has been deeply inflfluenced by governmentcontrolled media and cultural programs.[440] For many decades, foreign cultural inflfluences, especially thoseof Western origin, were shunned. But since the recent reformation, Vietnam has seen a greater exposure toneighbouring Southeast Asian, East Asian as well to Western culture and media.[453]

The main Vietnamese formal dress, the áo dài is worn for special occasions such as weddings and religiousfestivals. White áo dài is the required uniform for girls in many high schools across the country. Otherexamples of traditional Vietnamese clothing include: the áo tứ thân, a four-piece woman's dress; the áongũ, a form of the thân in fifive-piece form, mostly worn in the north of the country; the yếm, a woman's undergarment; the áo bà ba, rural working"pyjamas" for men and women; the áo gấm, a formal brocade tunic for government receptions; and the áo the, a variant of the áo gấm worn bygrooms at weddings.[454][455] Traditional headwear includes the standard conical nón lá and the "lampshade-like" nón quai thao. [455][456] In tourism, a number of popular culturaltourist destinations include the former Imperial City of Huế, the World Heritage Sites of Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, Hội An and Mỹ Sơn, coastal regions such as Nha

Trang, the caves of Hạ Long Bay and the Marble Mountains.

Cuisine

Main article: Vietnamese cuisine

Traditionally, Vietnamese cuisine is based around fifive fundamental taste "elements" (Vietnamese: ngũ vị): spicy (metal), sour (wood),bitter (fifire), salty (water) and sweet (earth).[471] Common ingredients include fifish sauce, shrimp paste, soy sauce, rice, fresh herbs, fruitsand vegetables. Vietnamese recipes use: lemongrass, ginger, mint, Vietnamese mint, long coriander, Saigon cinnamon, bird's eye chilli,lime and basil leaves.[472] Traditional Vietnamese cooking is known for its fresh ingredients, minimal use of oil and reliance on herbs andvegetables; it is considered one of the healthiest cuisines worldwide.[473] The use of meats such as pork, beef and chicken was relativelylimited in the past. Instead freshwater fifish, crustaceans (particularly crabs), and molluscs became widely used. Fish sauce, soy sauce,prawn sauce and limes are among the main flflavouring ingredients. Vietnam has a strong street food culture, with 40 popular dishescommonly found throughout the country.[474] Many notable Vietnamese dishes such as gỏi cuốn (salad roll), bánh cuốn (rice noodle roll),bún riêu (rice vermicelli soup) and phở noodles originated in the north and were introduced to central and southern Vietnam by northernmigrants.[475][476] Local foods in the north are often less spicy than southern dishes, as the colder northern climate limits the productionand availability of spices.[477] Black pepper is frequently used in place of chillis to produce spicy flflavours. Vietnamese drinks in the southalso are usually served cold with ice cubes, especially during the annual hot seasons; in contrast, in the north hot drinks are morepreferable in a colder climate. Some examples of basic Vietnamese drinks include cà phê đá (Vietnamese iced coffee), cà phê trứng(egg coffee), chanh muối (salted pickled lime juice), cơm rượu (glutinous rice wine), nước mía (sugarcane juice) and trà sen(Vietnamese lotus tea)