However, this has been accompanied by the emergence of the social and economic inequalities which the Government was hoping to avoid.
Agriculture remains the principal employer in Vietnam.
Rice, of which Vietnam is the world's second largest exporter, is the staple crop. Other cash crops include sugar cane, coffee, rubber, tea, cotton and groundnuts. Timber was once exploited on a large scale but the industry has been cut back throughout the 1990s until a total ban was imposed by the Government in 1997. Oil, coal and natural gas are present in significant quantities, along with deposits of tin, zinc, antimony, chromium and gold. However, the oil and gas is mostly offshore and of relatively low quality, so it may be some years before Vietnam acquires the extraction and refining capabilities to derive full benefit from them.