In order to develop a sustainable economy, the Communist Party and the State had many policies to promote the power of the people in economic development. However, the fact shows that motive power for development lies in exploiting the ability of its people in which exploitation of people's creativity to create value has an important role for the development. In order to exploit the power of people, the role of distribution is important. This paper examines the motive power for economic development and distribution in the socialist-oriented market economy. The results showed that distribution has a great impact to the motive power for the development. Therefore, the authors need to determine the characteristics of the distribution to promote economic development in Vietnam now.