Unplugging Institutional Bottlenecks to Restore Growth

This paper has been prepared for the fourth annual Vietnam Executive Leadership Program (VELP), to be held at the Harvard Kennedy School from August 26 to 30, 2013. The goal of this paper is to provide participants in the VELP forum, including Vietnamese government officials, international scholars, and corporate executives, with an assessment of some of the key public policy challenges confronting Vietnam today. This paper is by no means comprehensive; by necessity, it has not been possible to undertake an exhaustive study of every policy area. In selecting which issues to address, the authors have been guided by the priorities of the Vietnamese government as they have been articulated in policy statements promulgated over the past year. By design, it is a work in progress, not a finished paper. Over the five days of VELP 2013 the authors hope that the analysis contained in this paper will be debated, challenged, and, strengthened. It is hoped that this paper will serve as a catalyst for informed discussion and debate both among VELP participants and among the larger policy community in Vietnam.