Vietnam ranks eighth in the list of top ten movers in terms of per capita GDP growth, according to the UNDP’s 2010 Human Development Report launched in Hanoi on Nov. 9.

In the last four decades, per capita income in Vietnam increase five-fold, the report says.

The country also ranks 113 th out of 169 nations in the Human Development Index (HDI)-2010 rankings, a higher position than India at 119 th and Cambodia at 124 th , but needs more efforts to maintain sustainable growth, says the report.

It says life expectancy in the country rose significantly from 49 years old in 1970 to 75 in 2010 and is higher than Thailand with 69.3, the Philippines with 72.3 and the average in East Asia and the Pacific as a region with 72.8.

The country is ranked 58 th out of 138 nations in terms of the report’s gender equality index.

The report also shows that despite sustainable growth performance in the mid-1990s, Vietnam ’s HDI grew slowly from mid-2000 due to a natural decrease in life expectancy growth. The country recorded a high position in the area.

The rate of multidimensional poverty in Vietnam is low, but the intensity is high, particularly in remote and minority areas, it adds. The UNDP ranks nations using the Human Development Index that combines data on income, health and education./.