Introduction Nowadays, several different existing types of economic systems are adopted by different countries around the world,

such as economic market system and command economic system. Many disputes arise from the question that which model is the best, unfortunately, no satisfactory answers seem to exist. However, the remarkable and significant point here is that, as a result of globalization, Vietnam, one of many command economies, is recently on the way to converge and adopt a common market format, a market economy, and this topic is now widely illustrated and discussed in a large number of Vietnamese and foreign newspaper articles and current events. For example, a recent article, Prime Minister highlights Vietnams economic integration which was published in the Vietnam News Agency (Vietnam Plus) in June 2013 clearly demonstrates the fact that globalization forces Vietnam to reform and implement new policies and strategies for the purpose of constructing a competitive market economy in the near future. Therefore, this essay aims to critically analyze both positive and negative attributes of the topic which have significant impacts on Vietnam, as well as discuss on the relevance of the topic in relation to the mentioned newspaper article and eventually offer some recommendations for improvement to the current situation in Vietnam. Understanding To have better overall understanding of topic, some important concepts and theories, including globalization, command economies, market economies and convergence thesis need to be considered and clarified. First of all, the word globalization seems to frequently appear everywhere and all the time and there are several existing definitions to explain this term. Simply, globalization refers to the fact that many kinds of goods and services produced by a variety of companies located in different regions and countries are traded around the world (Dreher, Gassebner and Siemers 2012), or it can refer to the flows of resources, including investment, capital, labor

from one country to another. For instance, Vietnamese people buy an imported car which is assembled in America and has all its parts coming from many foreign countries, such as Germany, Japan and Korea. Moreover, American, Chinese and Korean movies and songs now seem popular with Vietnamese and have definite influences on Vietnamese culture. Secondly, a command economy (or a planned economy) and a market economy are two polar economic systems since they have absolutely different levels of government intervention. In a command economic system which is adopted by Chinese, Cuba and Vietnam and some other countries, the government generally owns all or almost everything and determines how to allocate national resources most efficiently in order to maximize the benefit for the whole country. Vietnam adopts a socialist command economy in which the government controls critical industries, such as education, agriculture, public transportation and so on, but non-critical businesses can be run by Vietnamese individuals, and privately owned enterprises can compete with state-owned enterprise. Thirdly, the market economy adopted by most developed countries, including USA and Canada is the one that entirely operates itself and the price and distribution of products and services are determined by supply and demand, rather than being put under control of the government. In such countries, everything is owned by private sector, such as lands, houses, natural resources and so on. In addition, people have the rights to run any businesses they desire. For example, a farmer can freely sell cow milk at a profit and he spend a part of his profit on his childrens education and if his children are prepared well at schools, they will have higher opportunities to get good jobs later. Lastly, in the era of globalization, the trend that many command economies, such as Vietnam is trying to shift into market economy to achieve a common market format, is referred to convergence. Vietnam is now affected both positively and negatively from the transition to a market economy. Firstly, shifting into a common market format helps Vietnam economy operate

more efficiently through intense competition among domestic and foreign business firms which forces the firms to continuously improve its business. Moreover, a common economy which is forcing a liberal response from Vietnam helps to reduce the trade barriers between Vietnam and other nations. Therefore, Vietnam is exposed to greater opportunities of doing business with other foreign countries, such as America, China, Japan and, which make the annual economic growth rate of Vietnam gradually increase (Multilateral Trade Policy Department 2012). Notwithstanding, Vietnam is simultaneously coping with a lot of challenges of adopting a market economy. First, an inequality distribution of income and welfare arises since people who have high ability tend to have a greater chance of generating more income and the gaps of living standards between urban and rural areas become widen (Vo 2005). Besides, the challenges might stem from the significant differences between a command economy and a market economy as well as consequences of prolonged wars in Vietnam which cause more difficulties for Vietnam to adopt a common market format. Application The transition to market economy in Vietnam is discussed in a recent article, Prime Minister highlights Vietnams economic integration which was published in the Vietnam News Agency (Vietnam Plus) in June 2013.As the mentioned article, consistent policy which aims to assist Vietnam in building a dynamic market economy in response to globalization and coping with all difficulties and challenges arising has been affirmed at the 2013 World Economic Forum on East Asia in Myanmar and other events. Additionally, it becomes more important for Vietnam to respect free trade and investment agreements, as well as international law to build good international relationships and receive the support from international parties in the process of adopting a common market format. For instance, the Asia Development Bank promotes the trade and intense competition between Vietnam and other nations by building economic corridors which help businesses expand their markets outside their home

countries. The formation of an ASEAN Community by 2015 is also a good event to prove that economic transformation and integration are sound decision for Vietnam. A lot of articles have tried to explain why and how globalization leads Vietnam to converge a common market format. Being WTOs 150th member (2007) and member of many other regional and international organizations help Vietnam building strong and friendly international relationships. The economy of Vietnam have also become more open