The Resolution of the 14th Party Congress clearly identified major strategic orientations for national development in the 2026-2030 period, emphasizing the establishment of a new growth model, creating "high-quality new production capacity and methods of production".
The goal of double-digit GDP growth in 2026 is identified as a strategic requirement, creating a foundation for a new stage of development of the Vietnamese economy.
Besides the expected disbursement of about 1 million billion VND of public investment capital, many experts and businesses believe that the prerequisite for realizing this goal is not the scale of resources, but the quality of institutions and the level of improvement of the investment and business environment.
Dr. Nguyen Quoc Viet - Public policy expert (Economic University, Vietnam National University, Hanoi) - said that institutional reform is currently a key issue, in which the biggest bottleneck lies in the implementation stage.
The expert believes that many guidelines and resolutions of the Central Government have been "very correct and accurate", but the gap from guidelines to practice is still quite large. Institutionalization into the new law is only the first step, while the stages of planning, action plans, specific projects and the system of guiding documents are still overlapping and lacking synchronization.
At the enforcement level, management thinking is still heavily focused on safety, formality compliance rather than efficiency and innovation. Fear of responsibility, avoidance, and push-butting cause compliance costs to increase, processing time to be prolonged, slowing down the progress of both public and private investment projects.
Therefore, "unlocking" institutions needs to become the central task of 2026. When institutional bottlenecks are cleared and enforcement capacity is improved, fiscal policies from public investment, budget revenue and expenditure to business support programs will truly promote the role of creating and promoting growth from the supply side.
Meanwhile, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung - former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management Research pointed out that the biggest bottleneck lies in the overlap between legal documents. The situation of "laws waiting for decrees, decrees waiting for circulars" still causes confusion for both law enforcement officers and people.
According to Mr. Cung, if contradictory regulations are not drastically removed, businesses will forever be struggling in the vortex of compliance instead of focusing on production and business.
At the same time, establishing a mechanism to protect cadres who dare to think and dare to do is a key factor to remove the psychology of hesitation and shirking responsibility that is hindering the reform process in some localities.
General Secretary To Lam has repeatedly emphasized, resolutely overcoming the situation of "the law is right but doing it is difficult", "in the parliament it is clear, at the grassroots level it is difficult", "above is hot, below is cold", "saying a lot, doing little", "decisions are right but implementation is slow", causing waste of resources, reducing people's trust...
It can be said that these are key points, when implemented, they will create a breakthrough in institutions, reforming the business environment this year and the next period," Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung pointed out.
Meanwhile, National Assembly Deputy Nguyen Thi Viet Nga (Hai Phong Delegation) emphasized that institutions and the business environment are shifting from "resolving difficulties" to creating room for development.
The delegate said that only when institutional reform is placed at the center, business freedom is protected and the policy environment is transparent, can double-digit growth be based on productivity, innovation and domestic market strength.
In which, institutional reform needs to strongly shift from "fixing to keep up" to "building to be sustainable", ensuring the consistency and stability of policies. The effectiveness of reform must be measured by the level of reducing compliance costs, the ability to attract investment and business, and the actual satisfaction of people and businesses.
