 (Illustrative photo: Danh Lam/ VNA) |
The Human Development Index (HDI) is an overall indicator of the quality of the socio-economic development of a country, territory, or locality. It was initiated by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in 1990.
HDI up 50% in 30 years
Human development has been placed at the center of Vietnam's development strategy for decades and it has brought positive results. The UNDP Report shows that Vietnam's HDI continuously improved from 0.493 in 1990 to 0.726 in 2022. In the 1990s, when the UNDP introduced the Index, Vietnam ranked at the bottom of the list, but has risen to the top half of the ranking. Vietnam currently ranks 107th of 193 countries and territories.
Vietnam's ranking moved up because its economy kept growing during the pandemic. Vietnam’s high growth in 2022 helped raise its human development ranking. Other indicators related to educational qualifications and life expectancy have improved, particularly secondary school enrollment rate and health indicators.
UNDP Resident Coordinator in Vietnam, Pauline Tamesis, said: “Vietnam’s progress in economic growth, poverty reduction, and improvement in other social indicators is truly commendable. Vietnam has made significant strike in human development. Since 2019 Vietnam has been recognized as the highest human development countries using the HDI. Multi-dimensional poverty has decreased from 9% in 2016 to 3.6% in 2022. People are living longer and healthier with life expectancy increasing to 73.6 years. 92% of the population is covered by health insurance. Two years ago, unemployment rate dropped to 2.32%, helping Vietnam achieving its sustainable development goals.”
 UNDP Resident Coordinator in Vietnam, Pauline Tamesis (photo: un.org) |
Human development remains center of national development strategy
The Communist Party of Vietnam’s leadership always focuses on the human factor in national development. The Party’s Platform for national construction in the transitional period to socialism says the major goals of social policy are to promote the human factor, ensure justice and equality of civil rights and obligations, combine economic growth with social progress, improve people’s material and cultural life, and meet the immediate and long-term needs of individuals, collectives, and communities.
During the renewal process, the Vietnamese Party and State have placed the people at the center of development policies and made taking care of people the ultimate goal of the regime.
The documents of the 13th National Party Congress in 2021 affirm that the people are the center and subjects of innovation, national construction, and national defense. All guidelines and policies must come from the life, aspirations, legitimate rights, and interests of the people and make the people's happiness and prosperity the goal to strive for.
Pauline Tamesis said that Vietnam commits to many things, including the innovative model of living no one behind, which means insurance access, social protection, health care, education, just energy transition, biodiversity, digital transformation, and food system. The UN will continue to support the government’s effort, including the National Action Plan to implement SDGs, said Mrs. Tamesis.
The Party and State’s people-centered approaches are paying off as Vietnam’s human development index has improved remarkably and has been recognized internationally.