At the 2026 Dien Bien Investment Promotion Conference, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Bui Hoang Phuong famous that Dien Bien’s difficulties, equivalent to fragmented terrain and lengthy distances between residential areas and financial facilities, can absolutely develop into new improvement areas if solved by know-how.
Dien Bien is likely one of the first localities to register for a managed trial mannequin of the low-altitude economy and low-altitude airspace with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST). This is not only a brand new financial mannequin but in addition a coverage take a look at to refine the institutional framework for nationwide science, know-how, innovation, and digital transformation.
The main position is assigned to main tech companies. “The participation of large groups and companies like Sun Group, Vingroup, and FPT will play a leading role in forming the ecosystem, creating a powerful ripple effect across the province,” Phuong famous.
New tech markets
It isn’t any coincidence that Dien Bien was chosen as a testing floor. With 70 p.c of its cultivated space consisting of steep slopes, making mechanization tough, labor prices excessive, and logistics costly, the province gathers practically all of the “bottlenecks” that UAV know-how can intervene in.
Nguyen Van Khoa, CEO of FPT and Chair of the Vietnam Low-Altitude Economic Alliance (LEAP), mentioned that FPT and different alliance members are aiming to construct low-altitude financial fashions appropriate for highlands, mountains, and border areas.
According to FPT’s calculations, making use of UAVs in agriculture can scale back pesticide spraying time from 4 hours to simply 10 minutes per hectare; enhance seeding and fertilizing productiveness to 40-64 hectares per day; and scale back agricultural logistics prices by about 40 p.c.
More considerably, throughout over 51,000 hectares of key crops equivalent to rice, espresso, macadamia, and Shan Tuyet tea, the UAV mannequin is anticipated to assist scale back cultivation prices by 15-20 p.c, save 62 million cubic meters of water yearly, and add about VND2,630 billion to the province’s GRDP.
This exhibits that UAVs are not merely “flying devices,” however have gotten a brand new infrastructure platform for agricultural and logistics economies in tough areas.
Tech corporations enter ‘soft infrastructure’ race
What differentiates this wave is that Vietnamese know-how corporations aren’t following the normal mannequin of promoting standalone units. Instead, they’re constructing total ecosystems that embody administration software program, information techniques, workforce coaching, logistics operations and pilot coverage frameworks.
FPT has proposed two cooperation instructions for Dien Bien: establishing linkage fashions amongst mountainous provinces with related situations to scale up the low-altitude economy, whereas choosing a number of “priority challenges” to cope with first, significantly in agriculture and logistics.
Alongside it is a human useful resource improvement technique. According to FPT, college students in Dien Bien might achieve early publicity to UAVs, information and automation from the secondary faculty stage to put together for the long run digital economy.
This alerts that Vietnamese know-how corporations are shifting from the position of “solution providers” to builders of foundational capabilities for localities, related to what number of international know-how giants created ecosystems round AI, cloud computing and electrical automobiles.
The Government’s inclusion of UAVs within the checklist of strategic know-how merchandise beneath Decision 21/2026/QD-TTg has opened a brand new race for Vietnamese know-how enterprises.
As AI, information and automation proceed reshaping industries, the “low-altitude economy” might develop into a brand new strategic marketplace for home know-how teams.
Instead of competing solely in software program or conventional IT outsourcing, Vietnamese corporations are coming into fields tied to bodily infrastructure, airspace, logistics and sensible agriculture.
If profitable in Dien Bien, the mannequin might develop into a “sandbox” for a lot of different mountainous provinces whereas making a sufficiently giant home UAV market to promote the analysis, manufacturing and commercialization of “Make in Vietnam” unmanned aerial know-how.
Thai Khang