Similarities Between South Korea And Vietnam

South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam all belong to the so-called East Asian miracle economies, and share certain similarities with each other: Korea and Vietnam both have a history with colonialism, whereas Vietnam and Thailand belong to the continental zone and seem to have experienced a growth that was more a result of vent-for-surplus conditions, rice and other exports, and foreign investment in manufacturing, as opposed to Korea’s development in which the state seems to have had a more prominent role (Hayami 2001, Quibria 2002). However, looking at for instance statistics of GDP per capita from the 1950’s onwards, it is evident that these economies took off at different points in time: South Korea around 1960’s, Thailand in the late 1980’s,

First colonized by the French, then annexed to Japan like South Korea, and onto the First and Second Vietnam War, the region suffered from tense domestic and international political conditions for a long period of time. South and North Vietnam were finally reunified in 1976, becoming the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, but conflicts with China remained until the beginning of 1990’s, and the country had difficulties receiving aid from foreign donors due to an embargo by the US. In 1986 the Doi Moi reform shifted the economy towards market and globalization, leading Vietnam to steadier economic growth and specialization in oil, textile and clothing exports, and into one of the world’s biggest rice exporters after Thailand. Like that of South Korea’s, Vietnam’s remarkable economic development was later on also heavily supported by foreign aid and trade agreements established after 1993, while favourable ecological conditions similar to those of Thailand also contributed to the country’s economic growth. Despite the high risk of being severely affected, Vietnam also survived the Asian financial crisis relatively well (Chaponnièr et al 2008, Nguyen et al 2015, The World Bank Group 2015