 Vietnam |
Vietnam's official name being Socialist Republic of Vietnam and national name being Cong Hoa Xa Hoi Chu Nghia Viet Nam, is located in Southeastern Asia, bordering Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin and the South China Sea, between China and Cambodia. Having an area of 329,560 sq.km and a population of 76,600,000, Vietnam's capital city is Hanoi ans it's major cities being Ho Chi Minh City(Saigon), Haiphong, Da Nang, Nha Trang, Qui Nho'n and Hue. Vietnam's neighbouring countries are Laos and Cambodia. The languages spoken in Vietnam are Vietnamese, being the official language, French, English, Khmer and Chinese. The religions in Vietnam are Buddhist, Roman Catholic, Islam, Taoist, Confucian, and Animist.
Vietnam has two different climate zones, the moderate climate zone in the North and the tropical climate zone in the South.
The moderate climate zone has two seasons, winters from November to April, and summer from May to October.
Like anywhere else in Southeast Asia, the tropical South of the country has three seasons, the cold seasons from November to January, the hot season from February to April or May, and summer from May to October.
From June to the beginning of November, during the Southeast Asia rainy season, Vietnam is like the Phillippines and the South China coast around Hongkong, regularly struck by Typhoons.
Vietnam covers an area of 329,600 square kilometres and 7.5% some what smaller than reunited Germany. It's located in southeast Asia bordering the South China Sea between Laos and the Phillippines. The capital city, Hanoi, is like Hong Kong, located at a geographical latitude slightly to the South of Cairo or the Canary Islands, meanwhile Saigon is at a geographical latitude only slightly to the North of the Nigerian capital Lagos. Even though Vietnam stretches for more than 1,650 kilometres from North to South, which roughly is the distance from Hamburg to Athens, but its coastline is about 3,000 kilometres long. Vietnam has five different regions: 1. The northern mountain terrain with heights reaching above 3,000 metres;
2. The delta of the Red River(at which Hanoi is situated);
3. The Annamite Mountain Range, which connects North and South Vietnam;
4. The Narrow coastal strip between the Annamite Mountain Range and the South China Sea;
5. The Mekong delta in the South of the country.
On July 6,1994, it was said by the Asia Week issue that by the middle of 1994, there was approximately about 73 million people in Vietnam, which made it the second largest country in Southeast Asia after Indonesia with 191 millions. About 90% of the country populations are Vietnamese, being the most ethnically most homogenous country of Southeast Asia. Even though there are other large number of ethic minorities, not quite as many as in Burma and Indonesia (far more than 100 in each of these two countries), but there is still, more than 50.
Of the 7 millions of Vietnam's ethnic-minority population, 85% of it belongs to indigenous ethic minorities, whose settlement areas have for many centuries been the mountain regions of Vietnam, which Thai and Hmong tribes being the largest groups. Vietnam's ethic minorities, contrary to what is the ease in Burma and Indonesia, is not strong enough of seriously aspire their own sovereign states. In the urban centres in the South of the country, about a million ethnic Chinese are living there and since the communist's takeover the Chinese suffer severe restrictions, it has reflected the fact that ethnic Chinese had played a dominant role in the capitalist economic system before the Communist takeover.
Economy
Vietnam's economy had to recover from war and other problems that lead the economy to disaster. The economy start to grow from 1986 to 1996.The growth averaged was around 9% from 1993 to 1996. In the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Vietnam decided not to prompting reform. It's growth of 8.5% in 1997 fell to 6% in 1998 and 5% in 1999. From there growth continued at the moderate level of 5.5%. These numbers made some major difficulties in Vietnam's economic performance. Vietnam's labor force was estimated 38.2 million in 1998, but still it's unemployment rate was high at 25%. It's labor force occupated around 67% in agriculture and about 33% in industry and services(1997 est.)
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