Speaking to Viet Nam News Agency's correspondents in Buenos Aires, Dr. Nadia Radulovich, an international relations expert at the Faculty of Oriental Studies under the University of Salvador (USAL), gave profound insights into Viet Nam’s historical significance, development achievements and social policies.
According to her, the successful August Revolution, which led to the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (today the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam), strongly encouraged liberation movements across Southeast Asia and the wider world.
A member of the Argentine Council on International Relations (CARI), she noted that the Vietnamese people demonstrated extraordinary resilience and determination through two major wars against French colonialism and American imperialism, culminating in the liberation of the South and national reunification on April 30, 1975.
In the challenging post-war years, Viet Nam restructured its economy through five-year plans before embarking on the “Doi Moi” (Renewal) process in 1986, transitioning to a socialist-oriented market economy, she noted.
These reforms produced sweeping transformations. Industry grew by nearly 14% annually between 1991 and 1995, Viet Nam became a major rice exporter, achieved universal primary education, and joined the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 1995. Between 1986 and 2024, Viet Nam’s GDP expanded from 8 billion USD to over 476 billion USD, while per capita income rose from less than 700 USD to around 4,500 USD, the scholar highlighted.
Dr. Radulovich assessed that Viet Nam has emerged as a middle power in Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific, skilfully maintaining a balance between the US and China, enhancing security cooperation with India and Japan, and playing a mediating role in major international events such as hosting the 2019 US-DPRK Summit in Ha Noi.
She underlined in particular Viet Nam’s people-centred development model, with policies focused on social welfare, poverty reduction and quality of life. This is reflected in the Party Central Committee’s Resolution No. 27-NQ/TW (2022), which set out multidimensional poverty standards, combining income with access to basic services such as health care, education, housing, clean water and information.
Dr. Radulovich also praised Viet Nam’s breakthrough policy to abolish tuition fees for all students in public schools from pre-school to high school, starting in the 2025-2026 academic year. She affirmed that this represents a clear commitment to human development and equal educational opportunities for every child in Viet Nam.
According to the scholar, Viet Nam’s journey since 1945 illustrates a remarkable combination of national independence, decisive economic reform and a strong commitment to human-centred development, securing an increasingly firm position for the country on the global stage.
