The 
Socialist Republic of Vietnam
Area
331,041 square kilometers
Population
83 million
Administrative division
5cities: Hanoi capital city(four million),hochominh(Saigon,7million)),haiphong (1,6million),danang(one million ) and cantho(one million) and 59provinces.
Geography
Vietnam lies on the eastern seaboard of the Indochina peninsula,it borders china to the north and laos and Cambodia to the west.to the east and the south lies the south china sea ,which the Vietnamese call the east sea .mountains and hills cover four-fifths of vietnam’s territory with the truong son range stretching over 1400km from north to south.the highest mountain named fansipan(3,142m) is the highest peak in Indochina.
The most populated areas in Vietnam are the lowland alluvial plains : in the north of country the red river delta is covering about 15,000sq km,with a 3000 km-long dyke network.in the south,the Mekong delta(to be called “rice basket”) is covering about 39,000sq km.vietnam’s two biggest rivers ,the red river and the Mekong river.respectively discharge 122,109 and 1,4 million cubic meters of water a year.
Vietnam has 3260 km long coastline features beautiful beaches and bays along the country like:tra co,halong bay,south china beach,nha trang…,besides the national parks like cat ba,cuc Phuong and cat tien…
Resources
Minerals :coal,iron,aluminum,tin and oil.
Agricultural and forestry products ;rice(yearly exported to the world market about 4million ton,just after thailand) ,maize ,sweet potatoes,peanuts,soy beans,rubber,lacquer,coffee ,tea,tobacco,cotton,coconut,sugar cane,jute and tropical and subtropical fruits.
Climate
Vietnam is essentially a tropical country with a humid monsoon climate.the average annual temperature is over 20 degrees Celsius throughout the country.
In july ,the average temperature in Hanoi is 28c,in hue 29c and in hochiminh city 27c.lowland area receive around 1,500mm of rain per year.while mountainous areas receive 2,000mm to 3,000mm.humidity can reach up to 90% in the rainy season.
South Vietnam has two seasons :cool and dry from November to april .then hot and rainy frommay to October.in the north Vietnam has four distinct seasons.of which fall is considered the most beautiful.the south Vietnam is warm all year round ,with seasonal variations in temperature averaging just three degrees Celsius.
History
Sometime between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200, the intermingling of the Red River Delta’s early inhabitants resulted in a distinct Vietnamese people. Virtually from the outset, the Vietnamese were ruled by the Chinese, and they would continue to be until A.D. 938.
During the centuries of Chinese control over the Red River Delta, two independent states rose to power in what is now central and southern VietNam. From the first to the sixth centuries, the kingdom of Funan held sway aver the Mekong Delta and the region that is now Cambodia; the kingdom was over thrown by the Mon-Khmer, who founded the Cambodian empire.
Along the coast of central VietNam, the kingdom of Champa ruled from the late second century until the 15th, when it was conquered by the Vietnamese, who expanded steadily southward after expelling the Chinese. In the 17th and early 18th centuries, the Vietnamese would wrest the Mekong Delta from Cambodia, essentially completing the formation of their country.
Of the more than a dozen dynasties that have ruled independent VietNam, three are considered ’great.’ The first was the Ly (1009-1225), whose rulers established Hanoi as their capital in the year 1010, naming it Thang Long, the City of the Soaring Dragon. (It was not until 1831 that the name Hanoi-City in a Bend of the River-came into use.) The Ly built new roads, dikes, and canals, and they vigorously promoted agriculture. In 1044 - 22 years before William the Conqueror invaded England the Ly founded VietNam’s first postal service.
The Ly dynasty ended in overthrow by the Tran, who established the second great dynasty (1225-1400). In 1407, the Chinese reconquered VietNam, but this time their rule lasted only two decades. In 1428, they were driven out by the Vietnamese hero who established the third great dynasty, Le Loi. The Le dynasty, which held power until 1524, introduced a series of remarkable reforms. Arts, literature, and education were promoted. Large landowners were forced to distribute their holdings to the land less. Legal reforms gave women nearly equal rights with men.
In the 17th and 18th centuries, VietNam was split by warring factions. Northern VietNam was ruled by the powerful Trinh Lords, the south controlled by lords of the Nguyen line. In 1786, three brothers, the Tay Son, briefly reunited the country, but even as they fought to depose the Trinh and Nguyen lords, their empire began fragmenting.
In 1802, one of the Nguyen lords defeated the Ay Son and proclaimed himself Emperor Gig Long, establishing the last of Vietnam’s dynasties. The Nguyen made Hue their imperial capital, and they ruled from there until the last Vietnamese emperor, Bao Dai, abdicated to a delegation representing Ho Chi Minh in 1945.
VietNam’s contacts with the West began as early as A.D. 166, when Roman travelers passed through the Red River Delta. it wasn’t until much later, however, that there was any sustained Western contact. By 1516, a number of Portuguese adventurers had arrived, followed by missionaries and soldiers. Over the next century a trading center and mission were established in the port of Faifo, just south of present day Danang. The Portuguese were followed by missionaries from Spain, italy, and France. Everyone seemed intent on converting the Vietnamese, and in the process, cultivating stronger trading ties, but no one had much luck in making a profit from trade with the Vietnamese. The Dutch tried and failed, as did the English.
The early French trading efforts foundered as well, but the French never gave up. Off and on for nearly two centuries, the French kept lurking around Indochina. From about 1850s on, French abandoned diplomatic overtures and settled on a policy of conquest. It would take them several decades, but by 1893 they had carved out an Indocinese empire that included VietNam, Laos, and Cambodia. The French then set about plundering the immense wealth of those holdings.
The exploitation visited on the Vietnamese by their French masters created fertile conditions for the resistance movements that sprang up over the years. Most of the resistance efforts were successfully put down, but in 1925 a new movement was established by a man calling himself Nguyen Ai Quoc, who in later years would take the name Ho Chi Minh the bringer of light. Ho’s VietNam Revolutionary Youth League became the nucleus of the Vietnamese Communist Party. In World War II, Ho formed the League for the Independence of VietNam, or Viet Minh, which during its resistance to the Japanese occupation of VietNam, received money and arms from the United States through the O.S.S.
The American support of the Viet Minh led Ho to believe that the United States would back his bid for an independent VietNam. But after the war, the Allies allowed France to reoccupy Indochina, setting the stage for the protracted guerrilla campaign that resulted in France’s ouster in 1954 and the subsequent partitioning of VietNam into North and South. The recognition and support of South VietNam by the United States would lead to the bloody conflict that ended in 1975 when the Communists overran Saigon, proclaiming an independent Socialist Republic of VietNam.
Ethnic groups
Vietnam has 54 different ethnic groups the viet or kinh .the majority people ,account for 88% of the country’s population and are mostly lived in the plains ,in contrast.53 ethnic minorities totaling 5,5million people live mostly in the mountain areas.major group include the tay(960,000 people),the nung(152,000),the thai(770,000),the muong (700,000)the h’mong (441,000),the zao(340,000),the hoa(930,000),the khmer(720,000),the bana(100,000)the giarai(184,000) and the ede(140,000 people).
The Vietnamese languages and scripts
The common national language ,Vietnamese is spoken by over 80% of the population.the ethnic minorities in general speak kinh in addition to their own languages :
*There are 3 linguistic families:
-the sino-tibetan group
-the mon-khmer group
-the malayo-polynesian group.
*There are 3 scripts:
-chinese han ideograms were used until the beginning of the 20th century.
-the nom script,created between the 11st and 14th centuries ,was derived from han script to transcribe the Vietnamese language.
-quoc ngu; Romanized script.first introduced in the 17th century by the European missionaries to propagate Catholicism.now it is used in all fields of life in Vietnam.
Education
-literacy:before the 1945 revolution,95% of the population were illiterate.by 1978,three years after the national reunification ,it was liquidated in the main throughout the country.
-general education: there are now more than 12,000 basic general education schools in all the rural communes and 832 secondary general education schools in all districts
-infant education: 55,000 kindergartens where 1,6 million children are looked after and educated.
-teachers’colleges:Vietnam has opened 114 teachers’colleges
-higher education and secondary vocational education:Vietnam has now 93universities with 100,000 teachers .higher education teachers have now 19,000 persons (9,1% hold degrees of doctor).
Theatre
Vietnam has five difference performances are popular opera(cheo),classical opera(Luong),renovated opera(cailuong),spoken drama(kich noi) and water puppet shows(Mua roi).
Cinema, music, dance and painting
Beside the growing of local products. vietnam has been receiving a big influence from the western entertainments through the trading and tourism since the country’economy reformed in 1991.
Public health
Vietnam has built a unified health care network in the whole country and launching a mass movement for completing the 5 major tasks in health care :building sanitary and anti-epidemic facilities, family planning ,growing and using traditional medicine herbs.there are more than 10,000 health care stations have been built throughout the country and the average of one physician (doctor or assistant doctor) for every 1,000people.
The policy of Doi Moi
Meaning renewal, Doi Moi opened Vietnamese society in unprecedented ways, by allowing foreign investment and greater freedoms of expression. It has permitted the Vietnamese to own and operate their own business and, perhaps most importantly, earn money for themselves. “Doi Moi” is not only about making money. It is about enjoying it, by seeing what the world has to offer, by testing the limits of change. Now that the country has opened its doors, a period of experimentation has begun, especially among those who are under 21, which, by recent count, is almost half the country.
(Vietnam economic review 0f 2005)
- Population: 83.12 million
- Labor force: 42.71 million
- GDP growth: 8.4%
- Industry: 17.2%
- Agriculture: 4.9%
- Services: 8.5%
- Inflation: 8.4%
- Budget revenue: 16.6%
- Budget deficit: below 5% GDP
- Exports: USD 32.23 billion
- Growth rate: 21.6%
- Foreign-funded sector: USD 11.13 billion
- Imports: USD 36.88 billion
· Growth rate: 15.4%
· Foreign-funded sector: up 23.5%
- Foreign Direct Investment
·771 new projects capitalized at US$3.9 billion in 2005, and additional investment of US$1,825.8 million in 509 existing projects. Till now: 5,918 projects capitalized at US$50,534.59 million.
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