[Report] General Accounting Office Finds Vietnamese Economic Data Deficient

["DiemQuynh Nguyen" <diemquynhng@hotmail.com>]

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General Accounting Office Finds Vietnamese Economic Data Deficient
By Nadine Nigel Leavitt
USIA Staff Writer
Washington (USIS Washington File, 12/8/99) -- The U.S. General Accounting 
Office (GAO) recently released a report concluding that while the quality of 
economic data on Vietnam has improved in recent
years, major problems persist concerning the availability,
transparency, and quality of published economic and trade data on the
country.
The GAO reports Vietnamese "data on many key indicators such as the
gross domestic product (GDP), growth rate, and foreign investments
still contained several weaknesses" and concludes that "it is difficult to 
effectively evaluate economic conditions in Vietnam and identify economic 
and financial problems that may be occurring there without more accurate 
data."
For example, the GAO reports deficient data concerning Vietnam's GDP -- the 
measure of the total output of the country's goods and services.
The GAO says the Vietnamese government does not effectively measure
certain components of the economy in its calculations of GDP such as
Vietnam's large informal economy, small businesses, telecommunications, the 
service sector. In addition, the report says, remittances from overseas 
appear to be underreported, while growth and foreign investment estimates 
may be overestimated.
The GAO report also singles out "data deficiencies" with regard to
Vietnam's state budget. The state budget is not made public because, by law, 
Vietnam's state budget is classified as a secret document. The GAO notes 
that due to pressure from international agencies and donors, top Vietnamese 
government officials had indicated in 1998 that they would release the 
budget -- but they still had not done so as of March 1999.
Another problem cited by the GAO is that for many years Vietnam used a 
national accounts system modeled after that of the former Soviet Union, 
which did not adhere to international reporting standards. While Vietnam 
adopted international standards in the late 1980s, the GAO reported, it has 
not fully implemented the system and has not been willing to release some 
statistics.
When data is available, the GAO adds, it is "highly aggregated and difficult 
to interpret" because the data collection, analysis, and
reporting methods used to produce it "generally is either missing or
unclear." The Vietnamese government does not publish the methods used
to collect and process economic and financial figures and does not
identify potential data limitations or gaps.
The GAO notes in its report that the United Nations Development Program 
(UNDP) concluded in June 1998 that Vietnam is in the midst of an information 
crisis which needs to be urgently redressed to avert financial crisis. The 
UNDP called for more reliable data on the Vietnamese banking and corporate 
sectors in particular.
The GAO reviewed nonclassified, published economic and trade data on Vietnam 
from March 1998 to March 1999 in response to a Congressional
request that cited the need for reliable and timely economic and trade
data on East Asia in light of the recent regional financial crisis and
moves toward the normalization of diplomatic and trade relations
between the United States and Vietnam. The full text of the GAO review
was made available on the Internet June 1999 and can be found at:

>http://www.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=gao&docid=f:ns99109.txt.


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