The country's official name is The Socialist Republic of Vietnam, and has been officially socialist since 1975. It has only one ruling party, the Communist Party. There are other political organisations but they work with the communists, not as an opposition.

In practice, the Vietnamese system could in many ways be described as capitalist. From the mid-1980s onwards, the government has moved away from old-style communism, with collective policies on agriculture, manufacturing etc, and encouraged private ownership and private businesses. Since then, Vietnam has become a major manufacturing and exporting nation - the textile industry is especially successful - and is now a large oil-producing country too. Tourism is another big, relatively new industry. However, it still has a planned economy based on five-year plans, as was common in Soviet days and is still done in China.

You can get an overview of Vietnam's economic and political system here.