From economic growth to sustainable development: lessons for Vietnam

Abstract

In the scenes of strong economic development all over the world during some decades ago, the new problems that are happening everywhere is the consequence of progress can be attract more concerns of economists. That is the trade-off of economic achievements and the degradation of environment, the exploitation of natural resources, the global warming, the rise of sea level and so on. The new concept about development - sustainable development - now becomes familiar. It is a new economic approach to express the development which care not only economic growth but also reservation of the natural resources, the environmental pollution, the investment on education. From that point of view, by using data of 90 countries, the author hopes to find out the relationship between sustainable development and other determinants such as GDP growth, export of natural resources and agricultural products, urban population growth, Human Development Index, corruption impact and so on. I strongly believe that the discovery of these relationships can provide some valuable lessons for development progress for developing countries and Vietnam.