Two consulting firms agree. Business Environment Risk Intelligence, a U.S. firm, rated Vietnam 40th of 50 nations around the world. The Political and Economic Risk Consultancy of Hong Kong ranked Vietnam as the highest risk among 12 Asian nations. Several U.S. ventures have fallen by the wayside in the past year. However, the plan has been delayed and may be dropped.
Vietnamese leaders appear to have recognized the foreign disenchantment.
Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet devoted half of his address to the national Assembly in October to calling for better conditions for foreign investment. A leading economist, Le Dang Doanh, in a remarkably candid speech to a business group that could have been given only with top approval in this authoritarian regime, recited a litany of obstacles ranging from inconsistent regulations to poor banking. It was unclear, however, whether any real changes would be made because of political infighting over the issue within the Politburo. Struggle toward renovation After the long war against the United States and South Vietnam ended with the country unified under Hanoi in 1975, the communist rulers struggled for 10 years to establish a centrally planned marxist economy. That effort failed, and in 1986 a program of renovation called doi moi was initiated.