Vietnam and the East Asian Crisis

Edited by Suiwah Leung, The Australian National University, Australia

The timeliness of this book is beyond question. Since the crisis erupted in Thailand in mid-1997 and spread, with varying degrees of severity, to the rest of Asia, the export-led industrialization strategy that has driven economic growth in East and Southeast Asia over the last 50 years has come into question. Is this model still applicable to latecomers such as Vietnam?

‘Can Vietnam make it? Is the crisis likely to spread and make the transition still more difficult, if not impossible?. . . This is a well documented and timely case study, raising almost all relevant issues of development. The book helps us to understand what is really at stake. It has succeeded in bringing together significant contributions and discussions on the big issues and important lessons can be derived for the future of Vietnam. . . . There are on the whole enough reasons for believing that Vietnam may be on the right track. But a "strategic vision" would indeed seem to be needed.’
——雅克·德·巴ndt, Université de Nice – Sophia Antipolis, France