In 2025, Vietnam's GDP increased by 8.02%, the scale of the economy reached about 514 billion USD. However, to achieve the growth target of 10% in 2026 and the period 2026 - 2030, it is impossible to continue to mainly rely on capital, land, resources, public investment or cheap labor. These drivers are limited and easily lead to increased land prices, pollution, inequality, and inefficient projects. Therefore, the economy needs to shift from extensive growth to based on productivity, knowledge, and innovation.
From resource exploitation to intellectual exploration
Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW identifies science, technology, innovation and digital transformation as the main driving forces; institutions, human resources, infrastructure, data and strategic technology are the core pillars. In 2025, the science and technology sector directly contributed about 1.4 million billion VND to GDP; the digital economy accounted for 14.02% of GDP, equivalent to more than 72 billion USD.
Changing the growth model does not mean denying land, resources or capital, but must transform these resources from direct driving forces into the foundation for innovation. Land needs to serve efficient production; capital must be directed towards technology, skills, intellectual property; resources must be deeply processed, used economically and fully calculated environmental costs.
Businesses must change profit-making methods
When growth momentum changes, businesses cannot continue to compete with land, cheap credit, incentives or low-cost labor. Sustainable advantages must be based on productivity, innovation, governance, brand, intellectual property and the ability to deeply participate in the value chain.
First of all, businesses need to consider AI and data as a restructuring program, not software procurement. Technology only creates productivity when it comes with clean data, redesigned processes and a team that knows how to use them. Digitizing a weak process only makes weakness happen faster. Investment in research, training and innovation must be seen as investment, not the first cost that can be cut.
Resolution No. 198/2025/QH15 allows businesses to deduct a maximum of 20% of taxable income to establish a fund for science, technology, innovation and digital transformation development. The question is whether businesses use those resources to upgrade their real capacity or just follow the trend.
What do workers learn, what can localities compete with?
In general, in the first 6 months of 2026, the rate of trained workers with degrees and certificates is 29.7%. Skill gaps are therefore no longer a separate story of the education sector, but have become a direct bottleneck of growth. Workers do not necessarily have to become AI engineers. What is needed first of all is basic digital competence, the ability to use AI tools properly, data thinking, foreign languages, problem-solving skills and the ability to re-learn throughout life.
Along with that are irreplaceable machine capabilities: Communication, judgment, creativity, responsibility, professional skills and practical understanding. Schools must shift from teaching for exams to teaching for work and continuing to learn. Businesses must participate in designing programs, ordering skills and opening up practical opportunities. The State needs to have a financial mechanism for retraining and job change insurance, especially for groups easily affected by automation.
For localities, competition in the new period cannot only be based on low land prices, high incentives or faster "ask-give" procedures. Localities must compete by the quality of institutions, open data, digital infrastructure, human resources, the ability to link universities and businesses, the living environment and the problem-solving capacity of the government.
An industrial park with cheap land but lacking engineers, lacking stable electricity, lacking planning data and transparent public services will be difficult to attract high-tech projects. At the same time, it should not be ranked only by GRDP growth rate, number of projects or total registered capital. It is necessary to further measure labor productivity, the rate of enterprise innovation, the number of retrained workers, actual income, job quality and emission reduction capacity.
Vietnam must grow up with a new structure: more innovative businesses, more skilled workers, better governance by localities and more effective construction by the State. GDP in the end is still just a result. The origin of creating that result determines how far Vietnam can go, where it stands in the value chain and whether the development achievements truly belong to the majority of workers or not.
