Whether this optimism is justified remains to be seen, as protectionist policies in the past have not made Vietnmese producers competitive. The government, whilst encouraging overseas investment and development assistance, is wary of negative outside influences. All local organisations are in some way related to government departments, but the government is considering legislation to allow the formation of independent local NGOs. Meanwhile, government services suffer from a chronic funding shortage at all levels. Ninety per cent of poor people live in rural areas, especially in the north-central coast region, the Northern Uplands and the Mekong Delta.
Women are generally worse off than men.
The government views English as the main language of development and as the means of access to information from the outside world. English-language teacher training is the backbone of VSO s programme in Vietnam, aiming to benefit disadvantaged groups in the poorest provinces. The programme has diversified into related sectors. Nearly all ELT volunteers work as teacher trainers in under-resourced junior teachers colleges, which train teachers for the poorest provinces. The volunteers are at the forefront of introducing communicative methodology through a pilot in-service English Language Teacher Training project.