Vietnam: Trapped on the trail of the tigers

Is Vietnam trapped on the trail of the tigers? The answer to this question is affirmative. Vietnam does appear to be trapped on the trial of the tigers, but the trap is one of its own making, as is likely the case of neighboring countries that are alleged to be stuck in the "middle-income trap, since what is usually said to have trapped those countries is their own policies. For example, Woo (2009) argues that too much emphasis on redistribution is what has trapped Malaysia, while Warr (2013) argues that too little emphasis on education and too much emphasis on mega infrastructure projects that lend themselves to corruption are what have trapped Thailand. What seems to have trapped Vietnam, albeit at a much lower level of per capita income, is unwillingness on the part of the government to loosen its protective embrace of the relatively inefficient capital-intensive state-owned enterprise sector or to significantly lessen its discretionary control over the allocation of resources, especially land and capital. In these circumstances, the export-oriented industrialization strategy does not and would not be expected to function efficiently. Nor, we suspect, would any other strategy that might be proposed as an alternative to export-oriented industrialization.