The Diplomat — June 10, 2012
By Bridget O’Flaherty
The optimism during Vietnam’s pre-2008 economic boom is over. The Communist Party knows it must take action. But it doesn’t seem to know what.
At one side of the large concrete Hoa Binh Market in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 5 sits an “illegal market,” where vendors set up small light bulbs over their produce and meat and loop wires over the large umbrellas. On special occasions like public holidays, police may chase away or even arrest the several dozen of these vendors. Sometimes, goods are confiscated. But that’s not their only problem now.
“Since last year our family’s income is down 40 percent, it’s almost half what it was,” says Phan Thi Khanh as she adjusts the iceberg lettuces rolling around loose in a shallow bamboo basket.
