1 From plan to market: the economic transition in Vietnam and China compared Abstract This paper examines the processes and sequencing of transition to a market economy in these two countries. It argues that the two processes have been similar, in that they have both entailed extensive official involvement in commerce as the market has 'emerged from the plan', but that the parameters have been very different. The paper also argues that the common assumption that both started in agriculture is misleading and false. It also maintains that the relationship between state and market has evolved very differently, partly resulting from different starting points but also because of the different sequencing. It advances and defends the position that after 1989 Vietnam was no longer best viewed as a transitional society, in that social and economic structures specific to the process of transition from central planning no longer existed. In this sense, however, China should in the mid 1990s still be viewed as transitional in nature. Adam Fforde, Visiting Fellow, Dept. of Economics Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University November 12, 1996 (Minor text editing and addition of Chronology Sept 2014, by when I was Professorial Fellow, VISES/VU) adam@aduki.com.au