Text/Zhu Ji Say

(All content in this article has an official and reliable source, and the specific information is detailed and detailed in the article)

In terms of the global economy, every country is rushing forward and wants to enhance its international voice. Our neighbor Vietnam has developed rapidly in recent years. By 2024, Vietnam's GDP has reached US$476.3 billion.

For a country with a population of more than 100 million, it is indeed not easy to deliver such a report card. Yunnan, China, which is connected to Vietnam's mountains and rivers, is often compared with Vietnam. So how does Yunnan perform? Who is better in this economic competition that crosses national borders?

Different choices under the wave of the times

The take-off of Vietnam's economy is largely acquiring the huge dividends of global industrial transfer. When many multinational companies seek lower costs, Vietnam just handed over its business card: a large number of young and relatively low-cost labor, coupled with a series of attractive preferential policies, greatly lowering the threshold for enterprises to build factories and produce.

The result is obvious that a large number of foreign companies moved their production lines to Vietnam. In the first half of this year, the actual amount of foreign direct investment exceeded US$21.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 32.6%.

The influx of large amounts of capital directly ignited Vietnam's industry and construction industries, and also led to a surge in exports. The export volume in the first half of this year increased by 14.4% year-on-year.

It can be said that Vietnam's success is a typical export-oriented growth. With its superior geographical location and extreme openness to foreign investment, it perfectly took over the opportunities of the times. The large number of job creation has also bulged the pockets of local residents, and the consumer market will naturally rise.

In contrast, Yunnan has been a new economic card for a long time, with unique natural scenery here, and tourism is the absolute pillar. Visitors are coming one after another, bringing considerable income to Yunnan, but it also makes its economic structure seem a bit thin.

Overreliance on tourism means that the economy has weak risk resistance and may suffer heavy losses once an emergency occurs. This single structure limits the imagination space for Yunnan's economic development, and transformation and upgrading has become an inevitable choice.

Cultivating internal strength is the hard truth

Just as Vietnam fully embraced external opportunities, Yunnan quietly began another path to reshape the economic structure. As a province that has basically completed the accumulation of primary industrialization, Yunnan has a longer-term goal and pursues a more comprehensive and sustainable development model.

Under the national level, Yunnan has carried out a profound industrial upgrading. Everyone has found that this land is not only humanistic, but also suitable for the development of manufacturing, especially high-end manufacturing with higher added value. Therefore, emerging business forms such as digital economy and financial industry have begun to take root in Yunnan, injecting strong economic resilience into the entire market.

Of course, Yunnan has not forgotten its traditional advantages. The country has strengthened its support for Yunnan's agriculture and opened up a new track for the new energy industry.

From the data, Yunnan's transformation has begun to show results. In 2024, Yunnan's GDP reached 3.15 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.3%. Although this growth rate is not fast compared with Vietnam, it is rising steadily.

Ear January to July this year, Yunnan's industrial added value increased by 5.1% year-on-year, and fixed asset investment is also growing steadily, which shows that the diversified economic strategy created by Yunnan is working.

In contrast, Vietnam also has some hidden worries behind its rapid growth. Its industrial structure is still labor-intensive and its technical level is relatively low. Vietnam has a huge gap in the key field of independent research and development, which is undoubtedly a major hidden danger to future development.

The People's Livelihood Ledger Behind GDP

If we look at the total GDP alone, Yunnan's 3.15 trillion yuan in 2024, it is indeed slightly lower than Vietnam's US$476.3 billion, but the strength of the economy is never simply defined by a single number. A more interesting comparison lies in per capita GDP.

When we spread the total output value equally on everyone's head, the situation reversed. Yunnan's per capita GDP is higher than Vietnam. Behind this difference is the completely different population structure and development model of the two places.

Vietnam has a population of more than 100 million, and its huge population base is both a dividend and a dilution effect. Although the number of factories and workers' demand are increasing, the growth of per capita income is not that significant.

The rapid development of Vietnam's economy is currently reflected in macro data, but Vietnam still has a long way to go to make the fruits of this development truly benefit every ordinary people and to qualitatively improve everyone's per capita income level.

And Yunnan's economic changes are more like a microcosm of China's economic transformation. What it pursues is not temporary explosive growth, but a more stable and diversified healthy development.

During the same period, although Vietnam's economy was booming, its inflation rate and unemployment rate were kept at a low level, which also showed that its economic base had strong resilience, which is also worthy of recognition.

After all, the economy is the basis for development in all fields. Vietnam has indeed performed outstandingly in recent years. Its development mentality of actively seizing opportunities and striving forward is worth learning from many countries.

And Yunnan's story tells us that recognizing one's own shortcomings, being brave to break through the traditional economic model, and making profound internal structural adjustments are also the key path to success. Yunnan's development direction provides other regions with a stable sample for reference.

Vietnam and Yunnan, one who borrows power from the outside and the other seeks inward, are all seeking development opportunities in their own way to make up for market shortcomings. Their development practices vividly show how different regions explore their own growth paths in a complex and changeable environment around the world.

Reference:

Russian Satellite News Agency--Vietnam Prime Minister announces GDP growth of 8.3%-8.5% in 2025 as a practical goal 2025-07-17 02:40

Economic and Commercial Office of the Embassy in Vietnam-Vietnam GDP growth in 2024 reached 7.09% 2025-01-08 17:39

General Office of the People's Government of Yunnan Province--In 2024, our province has achieved a regional GDP of 3153.4 billion yuan 2025-01-18 14:34:00