VIETNAM IN 2023: Stoking the Embers of the "Blazing Furnace"

Malesky and Bui discuss the blazing furnace campaign in Vietnam. Fuelled by the scalding heat of Vietnam's "blazing furnace" anti-corruption campaign, the year 2023 roared both in and out. In Jan, an investigation into bribery and overcharging for Covid-19 test kits and evacuation flights led to the dismissal of three prominent Vietnamese technocrats, including then president Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The implications of the "blazing furnace," however, are far greater than the counting of punished officials and vast sums of corruption money. The effort to root out corruption at the core of the Vietnamese regime is fundamentally altering the country's political economy. The changes that are unfolding have the potential to dramatically influence Vietnam's economic and political development trajectory in both positive and negative ways.