Vietnam
Socialist Republic of Vietnam  

Flag of Vietnam   – Coat of arms of Vietnam

Motto: Độc lập – Tự do – Hạnh phúc

(Independence, freedom, happiness)

Anthem: Tiến Quân Ca

Capital – Hanoi

21°2′N 105°51′E

Largest city – Ho Chi Minh City

Official language(s) – Vietnamese

Government – Communist single-party state

 - General Secretary – Nông Ðức Mạnh

 - President – Nguyễn Minh Triết

 - Prime Minister – Nguyễn Tấn Dũng

 - National Assembly Chairman – Nguyễn Phú Trọng

Independence – From France

 - Declared – September 2, 1945

 - Recognized – 1954

Area        

 - Total   331,689 km² (65th)

   128,065 sq mi

 - Water (%) – 1.3

Population              

 - July 2005 est. – 84,238,000 (12th)

 - 1999 census – 76,323,173

 - Density – 253/km² (31st)

655/sq mi

GDP (PPP)    2005 estimate

 - Total   $251.8 billion (36th)

 - Per capita – $3,000 (123rd)

HDI (2003) – 0.704 (108th) – medium

Currency – đồng (₫) (VND)

Time zone – (UTC+7)

 - Summer (DST)   (UTC+7)

Internet TLD  – .vn

Calling code  –  +84

Vietnam (Vietnamese: Việt Nam [1]), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is a socialist republic in Southeast Asia . Situated in eastern Indochina—bordering China , Laos , Cambodia , as well as the South China Sea —it is the most populous country among the mainland Southeast Asian countries.

The name of the country comes from the Vietnamese Việt Nam , which is in turn a reordering of Nam Việt—the name of an ancient Kingdom from the ancestral Vietnamese that covered much of today's northern Vietnam and southern China . Its Chinese cognate, Yue/Yuet, was also a name for ethnic groups living in the proximity of southern China during ancient times.