It has always been thus. In many ways the south/north dichotomy has mirrored our own. Southerners are socially more relaxed and the language differences are similar to ours. Northern speech is crisper and uses more consonants. Southerners slur their speech and omit consonants and some tones. Northerners are more puritanical all around same as northeasterners here. In matters of enterprise the dichotomy reverses the classic American differences. The southerners are more enterprising and open to business.
So would it be accurate to say that while the economy of Vietnam as a whole, both North and South, is a mixed economy, but the South is basically more capitalistic?