VNECONOMY updated: 27/07/2004
Vietnam’s Human Development Index (HDI) continues to improve, according to the UN’s human development report entitled Cultural Liberty in Today’s Diverse World.
2004 year’s report shows Vietnam’s HDI has increased to 0.691 from the 2003’s 0.686, keeping Vietnam’s ranking of 112 out of 177 countries.
The higher HDI value for Vietnam in the report reflects an increase in life expectancy from 68.6 to 69.0 years and a rise in gross domestic products between 2001 and 2002 from U$2,210 to $2,300 per capita, according to the revised comparable trend data.
The report makes special note of Vietnam’s success in converting its income into human development. “Countries at same level of income have large differences in HDI - Vietnam has roughly the same income as Pakistan but a much higher HDI, due to its higher life expectancy,” the report says.
Vietnam has seen a considerable rise since 1985 in its HDI, which measures of human development, such as standard of living, health and education. It has continued to improve since the mid-1980s, from 0.583 in 1995 to 0.605 in 1990, 0.649 in 1995 and 0.691 today.
However, on the basis of the Human Development Report’s Human Poverty Index, which attempts to assess the percentage of the population suffering from a variety of basic deprivations and ranks 95 developing countries for which adequate data is available, Vietnam ranked 41 out of 95 countries.
Tran Quoc Quynh
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Good news. That means Vietnamese people are enjoying a better standard of living overall. An increase in life expectancy and GDP per capita is good news indeed.
