Innovation as engine for Vietnam’s new era: Minister Nguyen Manh Hung

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung first evaluates the breakthroughs that create a basis to reinforce the nationwide economic system’s competitiveness.

The most excellent results of science, know-how, and innovation in latest occasions lies not in remoted achievements, however in a shift in consciousness, pondering, and methodology. They have laid the groundwork for a new improvement framework, the place science, know-how, innovation, and digital transformation are oriented in direction of output outcomes, with socio-economic improvement effectivity as the central criterion. The total chain of research-application-commercialization is now positioned throughout the logic of fixing improvement issues, reasonably than working in fragments.

These substantial adjustments are most evident in three crucial points.

1. First is a constructive institutional framework targeted on eradicating bottlenecks so know-how shortly enters manufacturing and life. In 2025 alone, the Ministry presided over the drafting of 10 legal guidelines and quite a few decrees, demonstrating a fierce dedication to “unlock” long-standing obstacles to scientific and technological improvement.
2. Second, digital infrastructure and governance capability have been visibly upgraded. Vietnam jumped 15 locations within the 2024 UN E-Government Index to rank 71st globally. With web speeds within the international prime 15, smartphone utilization exceeding 85 %, and 5G masking over 91 % of the inhabitants, the nation has shifted from easy “digitization” to efficient “data-driven operation.”
3. Third is the sharp rise in innovation capability and the startup ecosystem. Vietnam’s Global Innovation Index rating has reached forty fourth globally. The nation is now acknowledged as certainly one of 9 middle-income economies attaining the quickest enchancment over the previous decade, considerably elevating its worldwide aggressive place and standing.

Over the previous 5 years, substantial adjustments have reworked administration and manufacturing. The State’s service has developed by means of digital transformation. Administrative procedures at the moment are clear, slashing paperwork and ready occasions. By 2025, absolutely on-line dossiers have reached almost 78 %, marking a robust shift from bodily queuing to the digital realm.

Simultaneously, enterprise capability has deepened through automation and course of innovation. Data exploitation helps companies optimize operations, lower errors, and save vitality. Finally, the digital area is now an important dwelling atmosphere, offering residents with quick, customized companies in training and healthcare.

Ultimately, residents acquire comfort, companies acquire productiveness, and the State good points governance capability. This stays probably the most substantial measure of science, know-how, and trendy innovation in every day life.

Minister Nguyen Manh Hung then targeted on probably the most important variations of Resolution 57. Previously, administrative micromanagement of inputs stifled creativity, forcing scientists to focus closely on procedures reasonably than analysis. This decision basically resets priorities, shifting to output-based administration and in addition accepting managed dangers and failure, a prerequisite for producing true innovation.

This shift is quantified by particular targets:

• The Total Factor Productivity should contribute over 55 % to financial progress. This affirms a reliance on productiveness and know-how reasonably than merely increasing capital and labor.
• Vietnam goals to type a minimum of 5 digital know-how enterprises akin to superior nations to behave as “locomotives” for the ecosystem and drive progress.
• Research worth is now measured by marketability, concentrating on a business exploitation charge of 8-10 %. The focus strikes from “acceptance is the end” to sensible utility, guaranteeing “Make in Vietnam” merchandise remedy key nationwide issues.
• The State will allocate a minimum of 3 % of the annual price range to science and know-how. Crucially, mechanisms are shifting away from detailed management to lump-sum expenditures, granting possession rights to analysis organizations, and guaranteeing researchers share advantages upon profitable commercialization.
• A powerful scientific basis requires market nurturing. The Resolution targets R&D spending at 2 % of GDP, with social funding comprising over 60 %. Here, the State supplies important “seed capital.” However, when companies make investments, they demand tangible outcomes.

This market strain constitutes probably the most pure and efficient monitoring mechanism to appreciate output-based administration, guaranteeing that science serves improvement reasonably than current merely on paper, successfully remodeling analysis into real-world financial worth.

In 2025, the Science and Technology Ministry presided over drafting, amending, and submitting to the National Assembly for approval 10 legal guidelines on science, know-how, and innovation, thought of an important step in eradicating institutional bottlenecks.

This legislative push establishes a new framework, that includes pioneering legal guidelines on AI and Digital Transformation. Crucially, it revolutionizes administration pondering by lastly acknowledging that innovation inherently includes dangers and potential failures. New rules guarantee these dangers are managed successfully reasonably than eradicated by inflexible procedures.

Enterprises at the moment are established as the ecosystem’s middle, collaborating from the beginning of the method with clearer rights to personal and commercialize analysis, even when state-funded. When companies maintain real rights, they’re emboldened to speculate closely in R&D. Furthermore, technical knots relating to switch and IP valuation are untied, considerably shortening the trail from laboratory to market, turning information into tangible merchandise.

Another important breakthrough is the “sandbox” mechanism, making a authorized hall for testing new applied sciences underneath managed supervision. This permits startups to innovate legally earlier than increasing. Finally, the technique connects analysis on to market wants by means of ordering mechanisms and public-private partnerships. When analysis addresses real-world issues with a transparent “buyer,” utility accelerates, and social sources are mobilized extra successfully to drive sustainable financial worth.

Over the previous 5 years, Vietnam has considerably improved on the Global Innovation Index (GII). Beyond state price range sources, the Ministry has carried out a collection of options to unclog capital flows from the personal sector, enterprise capital funds, and worldwide sources, thereby realizing the purpose of reworking Vietnam to a dynamic startup hub of the area, as proposed on the ASEAN Digital Ministers’ Meeting.

Innovation turns into sustainable solely when capital flows are unclogged. In this, the State’s pivotal position is to determine mechanisms and generate preliminary traction. It prioritizes perfecting the authorized hall so that personal, enterprise, and worldwide capital can stream into the artistic startup ecosystem transparently and controllably. The Law on Science, Technology, and Innovation has created a foundation for forming nationwide and native enterprise capital funds utilizing state budgets.

Vietnam views ecosystem connection as a decisive issue. The Ministry actively promotes cooperation with main startup hubs like Singapore, the Republic of Korea, and the US, whereas elevating Techfest to guarantee worldwide traders that Vietnam is a critical market able to absorbing capital.

Additionally, clearly figuring out precedence areas is the simplest method to lead capital. Vietnam has recognized 11 strategic know-how teams, together with AI, semiconductors, and inexperienced know-how. This focuses on nationwide autonomy and long-term aggressive benefits.

When the State units clear strategic orientations, traders can visualize the roadmap, encouraging long-term commitments over short-term income. To turn out to be a dynamic regional hub, Vietnam should compete by means of ecosystem high quality, particularly clear establishments, market measurement, and connectivity, reasonably than short-term incentives. When these circumstances converge, capital flows will discover their manner.

In order to appreciate the draft Document of the 14^th Congress, which emphasizes a new progress mannequin, a double-digit progress goal, and sustainable improvement necessities, science-technology and innovation should be put on the middle of socio-economic progress, shifting from a specialised position to a constant driving power of nationwide improvement through sensible options:

1. Institutional perfection: Institutions should pave the way in which for creativity, constructing authorized frameworks for key sectors and implementing managed testing mechanisms. Laws should adapt yearly to the speedy tempo of know-how reasonably than ready years for amendments.
2. Mastering strategic applied sciences: Vietnam should pursue self-reliance, prioritizing sources for semiconductors, AI, UAVs, superior supplies, and new vitality, whereas progressively creating area and quantum industries. These are the new progress poles figuring out our future competitiveness.
3. Fundamentally reforming administration fashions: The nation should shift from “spending on research” to “purchasing results,” shifting from enter administration to output funding, whereas utilizing mental property as a improvement device.
4. Developing trendy digital infrastructure, specializing in shared knowledge platforms, AI facilities, and high-performance computing.
5. An innovation ecosystem based mostly on expertise: Without expertise, there isn’t a sturdy nation. There is a robust want for mechanisms to draw the very best folks, implementing a “three-house” (State – Institute – Enterprise) mannequin the place companies are central and the State is constructive, whereas unclogging capital flows by means of public-private enterprise funds.

By employees writers – Translated by Thanh Tam