Vietnam’s big stories, explained every week.

For people who live, work or invest in Vietnam, or are thinking about it. Written in Saigon with insights from across the OV network.

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  • What English news misses

    Many of the changes that matter in Vietnam are only reported in Vietnamese. We read them and explain them in English.

  • Why it matters, first

    Every story opens with what changes for people who live, work or invest in Vietnam.

  • From people inside the stories

    We write it with input from OV’s founders, investors and leaders, many of whom work on what we cover.

Latest issue

Vietnam, from $500 to $5,000

Forty years after Đổi Mới, Vietnam's income per person has grown more than tenfold. Its next goal is $8,500 by 2030.

Read the full issue

In this issue

  • Forty years of growth, and the 2030 goal
  • The State keeps control of the biggest banks
  • The US could add tariffs over piracy and fake goods
  • Inflation runs just above target
  • Clearer rules on investing through someone else's name

Chart of the week

Poverty in Vietnam since 1992

Share of people in Vietnam living on less than $3 a day, at 2021 prices.

Read it in the issue

Line chart: the share of people in Vietnam living on less than $3 a day fell from 57% in 1992 to 1.6% in 2022

Past issues

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  • Vietnam’s big stories of the week, explained
  • A chart of the week

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  • Links to the OV Guides and other OV resources, where they help
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How we work

  • We read Vietnamese and international sources and put the strongest first.
  • Every number links to its source.
  • What OV members tell us shapes what we cover next.
  • When members share what they see from inside a story, we share it without names.
  • When we get something wrong, we say so in the next issue.
  • Summaries are in our own words, with a link to the original.

OV Vietnam Brief covers policy, business and life in Vietnam, and what they change for the people who live, work and invest there. We report facts and their effects, and take no political side.