Dr Martin Gainsborough is a specialist on South East Asia’s politics and political economy with a focus on Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Before taking up his current post in Bristol, he was Lecturer in South East Asian politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies and holder of a British Academy Post-doctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Warwick. Dr Gainsborough is currently engaged in a research project looking at the changing nature of the state in provincial Vietnam in an era of globalisation and reform. The project is funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Dr Gainsborough is a Vietnamese speaker and has nearly fifteen years research experience in Vietnam. From 1996-99, he lived in Ho Chi Minh City where he conducted research for his doctoral thesis. Dr Gainsborough is a former Asia-Pacific editor of the business consultancy company, Oxford Analytica, and continues to work as a consultant for a wide range of government, multilateral and private sector clients.

This book explores the way in which the state has become commercialised under reform as party and government officials have gone into business and considers the impact that this has had on politics within Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. The book charts the way in which power has been decentralised to the lower levels of the party-state but argues that the central state retains significant power. These issues are explored through a variety of case studies including the implementation of different reform policies, struggles over political and business activity, and the prosecution of two major corruption cases. Particular emphasis is placed on piecing together the myriad of informal practices which dominate business and political life in Vietnam.