Changes of Rural Households Economy in Mekong Delta under Doi Moi in Vietnam

Vietnam became an independent nation in 1945 and reunified in 1975. Under the leadership of Vietnam Communist Party (VCP), the Centrally Planned Economy model (CPE) was adopted as its will for the development. After 30 years of collectivization, Vietnam changed its former economic system to market-oriented one in 1988. Besides the economic reform itself, several historical factors have attributed to the change. Among them, political and social reforms occurred in the former Soviet Union and China in the 1980s could be considered as important factors that inspired Vietnam to adopt the similar transformation in economic sector as in those countries. In this context, the purpose of this paper is as follows: how has the household economy been promoted by such reform policies; and how have the farmers evaluated the circumstance of the current free market system? For this purpose, this paper presents empirical results based on the case study that was performed in the flooding area of Mekong Delta, Vietnam.