On March 27, in Hanoi, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and units organized the Vietnam Sports Economy Summit 2026 - Building a New Economy (Viet Nam Sports Economy Summit 2026).
Speaking at the opening of the forum, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism - Nguyen Van Hung said: "In the framework of activities to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Vietnam's Traditional Day of Physical Education and Sports, one of the important activities is to organize the Vietnam Sports Economic Forum.
We can understand that this is an open space to exchange and clarify scientific bases, a place for businesses to meet, listen to practical voices, investment processes, a place to share management experiences, and jointly build solutions to promote Vietnamese sports development...".
Minister Nguyen Van Hung hopes that the academic and theoretical issues presented at the Forum will expand the issue and exchange together, thereby contributing to bringing Vietnamese sports deeply into the world.
This year's forum not only continues the exchange that has been initiated since previous sessions, but also goes deeper into core questions about data, market, investment, communication, brand and industry development platforms.
If the 2023 and 2024 forums contributed to opening up initial awareness of the sports economy, this year marks the next step with a deeper approach, going straight to data, market opportunities and the necessary conditions for the sports economy to develop substantively in Vietnam.
An important highlight of this year's program is the first publication of the Vietnam Sports Economy Report 2026. The report contributes to providing a data platform and initial analysis of the scale, structure, growth drivers and development models of the sports economy in Vietnam.
In addition, the forum also organized 5 discussion sessions and thematic sessions, focusing on major content groups including:
Session 1: Global perspective on sports as an economic sector.
Session 2: Experience in developing sports economy from the Korean sports economy model.
Session 3: Panel "Market, Investment and Revenue Model in Sports".
Session 4: Experience in organizing and developing from international sports.
Session 5: Panel "Policy and strategy: Building Vietnam's sports economy".
The forum is scientifically designed with discussion sessions on global economic models, experiences from major leagues such as NBA, Premier League or La Liga.
The forum also focused on solving "10 big questions" of Vietnam's sports economy, including: the ability to build a real sports economy, business models for clubs, and the potential of media rights.
Notably, issues of technology application and sports exploitation as a driving force for local tourism were also discussed at the forum.
