Productivity is the main source of growth
On the afternoon of August 14, in Ho Chi Minh City, the Ministry of Science and Technology coordinated with relevant units to organize the National Productivity and Quality Forum 2026 with the theme: "Productivity breakthrough based on science, technology, innovation and digital transformation for Vietnam to move quickly towards the vision of 2045". The forum was attended by Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung.
Speaking at the opening of the forum, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Le Xuan Dinh said that Vietnam is entering a new stage of development, requiring rapid and sustainable growth. In the context of increasingly limited room to expand input resources, productivity must become the main resource for long-term growth of the economy.
Productivity breakthrough is not simply making more products, but creating more value from the same resources. "Productivity creates efficiency, while quality is a factor in building trust and market access. Both of these factors must be improved so that businesses can compete with technology and value instead of just relying on scale," Deputy Minister Le Xuan Dinh assessed.
Speaking to direct at the forum, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung emphasized that after nearly 40 years of renovation, Vietnam's economic potential has made outstanding progress. However, the current growth model still relies heavily on expanding input resources rather than efficiency of use. In the context of increasingly limited resource expansion, productivity must become the main resource for long-term growth.
Three strategic orientations from the Government
According to the Government's orientation, the concept of productivity has now changed. Productivity is no longer simply about making things faster in the old way, but about creating new value through technology, data and modern management methods.
To achieve this goal, Deputy Prime Minister Ho Quoc Dung has set out three major orientations for the 2026-2030 period:
First of all, productivity improvement activities need to shift from the nature of the movement to the actual depth and have specific measurement capabilities, in which productivity indicators must become the core measure in management work at all levels from ministries, branches, localities to each enterprise.
Next, science and technology and innovation must be identified as the driving force for creating new productivity through bringing artificial intelligence and digital transformation directly into production lines as well as management processes, instead of just limiting it to basic office applications.
Finally, this task requires synchronous and strong mobilization of integrated resources from the state-owned enterprise sector, the private economy to the entire public sector to create synergy, helping to reduce costs and improve competitiveness for the entire economy.
Specific goals and roadmap
The Government aims for the contribution of total factor productivity (TFP) to growth to reach over 55%, and labor productivity in the private economic sector to increase on average from 8.5-9.5%/year.
Regarding key tasks in the coming time, the Ministry of Science and Technology is assigned the task of completing the National Productivity Improvement Plan for the new phase in the third quarter of 2026. This plan will focus on new contents such as: AI and data-based productivity, green productivity, digital standards and building a national productivity database.
In addition, developing productive human resources that meet regional standards and promoting digital skills training for workers are also considered key factors.
