The Vietnamese government is reducing its investment in public health services and encouraging the private sector to get involved in providing health care. As a result, poor rural people and ethnic minorities have little access to quality care, even though the country has experienced an overall improvement in living standards over the past ten years. Despite the great need to fill this "health care gap," MSF felt that conditions were not right for it to continue to bring added value through its work in the country. As a consequence, the organization closed its mission in September 2000, after ten years of work.
