Back | Programme Area: Social Policy and Development (2000 - 2009)
Globalization and Its Effects on Health Care and Occupational Health in Viet Nam (Draft)
This report discusses the impact of globalization on health care, focusing on the negative impacts, and recommends some solutions for reducing these negative impacts on inequality in health care in Viet Nam.
During the past two decades world trade has tripled and global trade in services has increased more than 14-fold, increasing production of information, knowledge and technology. This leads to worker’s average production of $9,160 annually. However, not all are benefiting from this change. Globalization under liberalized markets has generally benefited the industrialized or strong economies and marginalized the weak economies. For example, the difference in annual average GNP per head between high-income countries and low-income countries is 12 times, and between 1960 and 1990 contribution of the poorest countries to world trade reduced from 4 per cent to 1 per cent.
Poor countries may find it hard to develop the capacity and contacts needed to take part in international investment or trade. The danger is that they may compete with each other to keep a small part of the world trade by lowering wages and making other trade concessions. Debts can increasingly consume scarce domestic resources and reduce development capacity. Currently, the income of one fourth of the world population is falling, and even in the same region and within a country inequity occurs in economic opportunities and wealth. Many countries are urgently conducting research on the effect of globalization on people’s living standards and health care.
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