Rural Industries in Northern Vietnam: Strategies of Small-scale Business Establishments in the Formation of Craft Villages

In Vietnam, the permeation of non-agricultural economic activities into rural areas is a phenomenon that reflects recent rapid economic growth. A significant area of rice fields, especially along major national highways, have been converted to large factories and industrial parks, while small-scale businesses in the industrial and service sectors can be observed everywhere in rural Vietnam. Since the liberalization of the economic activities of farmers and rural residents as a result of the Doi Moi reform in the late 1980s, the “industrialization” of the rural economy has been evolving rapidly.