---
node: doi_moi
type: event
slug: doi_moi
title: "Doi Moi reforms"
lead: "At its Sixth Congress in December 1986, Vietnam's Communist Party adopted Doi Moi — renovation — turning to market-oriented reform while keeping one-party rule."
published: 2026-07-09
updated: 2026-07-09
image_file: doi_moi.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ho_Chi_Minh_City_Skyline_(night).jpg"
image_author: "Jim 陳"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 2.0"
---

## What happened

The Sixth Congress of December 1986 adopted the renovation course: de-collectivization of farming, price liberalization, legal private business, and openness to foreign investment — while one-party rule was kept in place.

## Background

The turn followed a decade of postwar economic crisis. Collectivized agriculture was failing, inflation was running in the hundreds of percent, and the loss of Soviet-bloc support was looming.

## Consequences

Vietnam became one of the world's top rice exporters within years. The US embargo ended in 1994 and relations were normalized in 1995, the year Vietnam also joined ASEAN; WTO accession followed in 2007. By World Bank accounts, decades of high growth brought a steep decline in poverty. The course is often compared with China's reform and opening, and it laid the ground for today's manufacturing-and-trade economy.