In the second quarter of 2025, Vietnam's GDP grew by 7.96 per cent thanks to booming exports. The new trade agreement with the US has improved the climate of confidence, but transhipped goods from China risk affecting the entire regional production chain.
The sentence was handed down after a swift trial in the south of the country. The defendants were found in possession of 50 kg of heroin and methamphetamine. Vietnam has some of the strictest anti-drug laws in the world, while trafficking is on the rise due to infrastructure and transport developments in the “Golden Triangle” region.
Vietnam’s National Assembly voted a resolution in favour of an administrative reform that strengthens the power of the country’s current leadership, which emerged victorious from the “blazing furnace" anti-corruption campaign inside the party. The country of 101 million will be divided between 28 provinces and six centrally run cities.
The measure was introduced in 1989 after the war to reduce the pressure on scarce resources. Removing the limit is meant to reverse the declining birthrate and the aging of the population. The drop is not uniform and affects mainly large centres like Ho Chi Minh City.
After a five-year hiatus, passenger rail service between Hanoi and Nanning restarted yesterday. The two countries recently announced a new high-speed railway to Haiphong Port, part of joint plans to boost tourism and regional trade.
Life expectancy in Vietnam tops 74 years, but chronic diseases are up among the over 60s, particularly men. Public health authorities are grappling with high costs, inadequate services, and a rapid demographic transition. By 2050, one in four Vietnamese will be elderly.
