Vietnam - Industry

During the colonial period, the French did not promote the development of Vietnamese industry in order to keep it from competing with their own industries. In the period following 1954, socialist northern Vietnam used a Soviet-type economic system emphasizing the development of Vietnamese heavy industry by the state sector. In the capitalist south, the emphasis was on the development of light industry such as the assembly of small-scale consumer goods. By the 1980s, a unified Vietnam was shifting to an emphasis on greater light industry to meet the basic needs of the population.