Research Findings

Viet Nam Publication Abstracts

Food Policy and Market Reform in Viet Nam and Bangladesh

This piece provides a comparative introduction to the reforms unfolding in Bangladesh and Viet Nam, as Bangladesh seeks to reduce government intervention in its foodgrain markets and Viet Nam, to make the transition from a command to a market economy. It first describes similarities between the two countries in terms of per capita income, geography, population density and a concentration on rice production. Despite these similarities, Viet Nam has enjoyed much higher growth over the last decade (5 percent as opposed to 2 percent). The authors attribute Viet Nam's superior performance to several factors: a more egalitarian distribution of land, a reduced incidence of landlessness, the concentration of the poor in certain areas as opposed to widespread poverty in Bangladesh, a higher literacy rate and much greater female participation in farming.

The authors then provide an overview of IFPRI activities in each of these countries in support of liberalization, and document the changes each country has implemented as a result. It concludes by summarizing lessons for reform stemming from these experiences. In particular, it suggests:

• that a major factor affecting the ability of the political system to reform is whether the country is a net importer or exporter of foodgrains and whether grain production is growing quickly or slowly;
• the need to incorporate political factors conditioning the reform process into research recommendations; and
• the need for reforming countries to develop a market monitoring institution to trace bottlenecks and identify emerging problems in order to solve them as soon as they occur.

Key words: Bangladesh, institution, liberalization, rice, policy, politics, Viet Nam

last updated: April 25, 1999