Head of state: President Tran Duc Luong

Head of government: Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet

Ruling system: One party system

Ruling party: Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) (General Secretary: Nguyen Viet Dung) 

Capital: Hanoi

Area: 329,556 sq km

Population: 79.5m (1999)**

Membership of international organizations: Asian Development Bank (ADB), ASEAN (from July 1995), Colombo Plan (CP), ESCAP, EU economic co-operation accord (signed July 1995), FAO, G-77, IAEA, ICAO, IDA, IFAD, IFC, ILO, INTELSAT, IMF, IMO,IRC, ITU, International Bank for Economic Co-operation, International Investment Bank, NAM, UN, UNDP, UNESCO, UNICEF, UPU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, World Bank, In June 1996 Vietnam applied for membership of APEC (the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum). Vietnam has requested to join the WTO.

Expiry of GC membership: 

* The World of Information "Asia & Pacific Review 1997 Sixteenth Edition, The Economic and Business Report

** College of Population Studies, Chulalongkorn University, 1999

1. 1994 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation.
2. 1948 Agreement for the Establishment of the Indo-Pacific Fisheries Commission.
3. 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
4. 1971 Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat (Ramsar) [20 September 1988].
Protocol to Amend the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat, Paris, 1982
5. 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage [19 October 1987].
6. 1972 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxic Weapons, and on their Destruction.
7. 1973 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora [20 January 1994].
8. 1973/78 MARPOL Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships [29 August 1991].
9. 1977 UN Environmental Modification Convention (ENMOD) [26 August 1980].
10. 1977 Red Cross Protocols Relating to the Protection of Victims of Armed Conflict.
11. 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea [25 July 1994].
12. 1985 FAO International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides.
13. 1985 Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer [26 April 1994].
14. 1986 IAEA Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident [29 September 19987].
15. 1986 IAEA Convention on Assistance in the Case of a Nuclear Accident or Radiological Emergency [29 September 1987].
16. 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer [26 January 1994]'

*** London Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, London, 1990.

*** Copenhagen Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, Copenhagen, 1992.
17. 1988 Agreement on the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia and the Pacific [2 February 1989].
18. 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal [13 March 1995].
19. 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change [16 November 1994].
20. 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity [16 November 1994].

- Contains a broad mandate for environmental impact assessment.

Provincial Environment Committees Several provinces have established an environment committee responsible for provincial environmental protection regulations. In 53 provinces and cities there are 53 units of Science, Technology, and Environments which deal with environmental protection.

(ii) Deforestation;

(iii) Watershed degradation;

(iv) Water pollution;

(v) Air pollution;

(vi) Overfishing;

(vii) Degradation of mangrove forests;

(viii) Floods;

(ix) Lack of EIA procedures;

(ix) Rapid urban population growth; and

(x) Urban and Industrial waste water.

1. Association Biosciences VN
2. Association Des Géographes Vietnamien (AVG)
3. Société D’Ecologie Du Vietnam 1985
4. Zoologie Society Vietnam 1986