Vietnam has bid farewell to former prime minister Vo Van Kiet, who led the communist nation’s return to the world arena after decades of war and isolation.

Tens of thousands of mourners lined the streets of Ho Chi Minh City to honour Kiet, after the country’s political elite paid their respects in the Reunification Palace.

Communist Party chief Nong Duc Manh headed long lines of mourners who filed past the casket in the palace reception hall starting early Saturday.

Kiet, 85, who died last Wednesday in a Singapore hospital, was a chief architect of the doi moi (renewal) market reforms of the late 1980s and 1990s that tackled severe poverty in Vietnam, and ushered in an era of economic growth.

During his 1991-97 term, he battled hardliners to push through reform, reopening Vietnam’s doors to foreign tourists and investors, and normalizing relations with former enemies the United States and China.

Kiet was a revolutionary veteran of the wars against the French and Americans.