Mekong Delta Countries: Growth Prospects and the Critical Variables that would help these Countries to Achieve Sustained Economic Growth

Research studies have dealt with developing countries’ economic growth from various perspectives. The three main study types are factor driven, methodology driven, and geographically driven. Whereas these studies have demonstrated the effects of various factors on the economic growth of developing countries, they reflect conditions that are more stable when they are accompanied by consistent and complete availability of economic-related statistics.

The Mekong delta countries have a rich history that has seen its glory days mired with years of civil war, political instability, and weak economic policies resulting in a dire economic state. Because some of the Mekong delta countries are not developed and data for them are lacking, not many studies have been undertaken to analyze their economic conditions and offer solutions for sustained economic growth. The Asian Development Bank would like to develop this region and feels that it has the potential to become the next strong economic group in Asia. The research presented here examines the region's present economic conditions and using regression analysis attempts to isolates factors that could be contributors to the economic growth of this region. The study's findings suggest that currently only the long-term borrowing is helping these countries attain economic growth. As previous studies have shown, long term debt is by nature a short term solution. In order to achieve sustained growth these countries will have to adopt initiatives that have worked for other countries such as human capital development, domestic capital formation, and a stronger export oriented economy.