Vietnam

Vietnam (pronounced /’vi:ɛt’nɑ:m/; Vietnamese: Việt Nam), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Cộng hòa Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea to the east. With a population of over 85 million, Vietnam is the 13th most populous country in the world.Vietnam’s number of visitors for tourism and vacation has increased steadily over the past ten years.

About 3.56 million international guests visited Vietnam in 2006, an increase of 3.7% from 2005. The country is investing capital into the coastal regions that are already popular for their beaches and boat tours. Hotel staff and tourism guides in these regions speak a good amount of English.Vietnam, a one-party communist state, has one of south-east Asia’s fastest-growing economies and has set its sights on becoming a developed nation by 2020. It became a unified country in 1976 after the armed forces of the communist north had seized the south of the country in the previous year.

Location: Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia.

Capital: Hanoi

Official language: Vietnamese

Government type:  Communist state

President: Nguyen Minh Triet

Prime Minister: Nguyen Tan Dung

National Holiday: Independence Day, 2 September (1945)

Area

total: 329 560 km²
land: 325 360 km²
water: 4 200 km²

Climate: tropical in south; monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season (May to September) and warm, dry season (October to March).

Population: 85 262 356 (July 2007)

Currency: Dong (VND)

Internet domain: .vn

International dialing code: +84

Sources: www.wikipedia.org

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