(CPV) – When asked to compare Vietnam’s current economic situation with that of the recent past, 47% of respondents agreed with the assertion that the Vietnamese economy is improving compared with the previous five years, whereas 18% disagreed with this viewpoint, according to “Changing attitudes towards the Market and the State, 2011” (CAMS 2011).

Source: cpv.org.vn

Only the group of FDI enterprises and local government agencies had a majority view that “The economic situation in our country is better today than around five years ago.” Among the remaining groups, only a slim proportion agreed with such a viewpoint. Additionally, 41% of the respondents felt unsatisfied with the current economic situation, whereas only 18% were satisfied.

It is worth mentioning that in all the surveyed groups, the percentage of people dissatisfied with the current economic situation was higher than those who were satisfied. The group feeling the least satisfied included people from embassies, development organizations, media, and civil society organizations.

Among enterprises, SOEs seemed to have the most negative viewpoint, with the percentages of satisfied and unsatisfied being 9% and 45%, respectively. The opinion among private domestic enterprises was a little more evenly divided, with the percentage of satisfied and unsatisfied being 23% and 34%, respectively.

In FDI enterprises, the percentage of satisfied and unsatisfied was almost the same, 29% and 30%, respectively. Despite a negative view of the current economic situation, the Vietnamese people seem to have a more positive view of the future.

Of all respondents, 67% stated that their children would live a better life than they now do. Only 9% of the respondents expressed any doubts – a significant difference. In particular, the private sector, both domestic and foreign, had the highest proportion of those feeling quite positive about the future.

Although not impressed with the economic changes in Vietnam in recent years and unsatisfied with the current economic situation, people from embassies and development organizations still felt positively about Vietnam’s economic future, with 68% of the group reporting a positive viewpoint, which is higher than the general average of the surveyed sample.

The findings on people’s comparison of the current and recent economic situations in Vietnam fail to surprise. Nearly half of respondents thought that Vietnam’s current economic situation is better than five years ago. This situation may be based on rather impressive statistical data highlighting the development achievements of Vietnam during this period, as well as comparison of the last year and the first year of this five-year period, given the global economic crisis.

Foreign direct investment firms and private domestic businesses enjoy a more open and free business environment as a result of the Law on Enterprises 2005, and the Law on Investment 2005.

Moreover, localities have also benefited from a determined process of decentralization. It is, therefore, easy to understand the high percentage of people with a positive viewpoint in this group. Opposing viewpoints of other groups may be derived from the fact that they have access to more thorough and explanatory economic analysis. As such, they can see the more complicated aspects of the development process in Vietnam over the past five years.

Given the current economic situation, the difficulties of the Vietnamese economy are having a strong impact on the lives of many Vietnamese, as well as on the activities of organizations, and agencies. As such, the number of respondents dissatisfied with the economy was double that of the satisfied respondents.

It is worth noting that the percentage of satisfied people in the groups of FDI companies, domestic enterprises, policy makers and implementers is higher than that of the groups of development organizations and civil society organizations.

It is possible to conclude that satisfied people are more capable of overcoming difficulties in the economy, although this does not reduce the burden of responsibility on policy making and implementing agencies to spur development and improvement within the economy.

It is good news that, although expressing dissatisfaction with the current economic situation, most respondents are quite positive about the future. This optimism is not unfounded, given the great potential of the Vietnamese economy, particularly as Vietnam has already grasped its internal problems and proposed proper programs for overall economic reform.

At the same time, the country is pursuing the goal of improving the framework of its market economy, and further defining the path of sustainable development./.