'The three driving forces behind Vietnam's breakthrough'
29/01/2026
According to Minister Nguyen Manh Hung, science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation are the three driving forces that will propel Vietnam to a breakthrough and become a high-income developed country.
This message was conveyed by Minister Nguyen Manh Hung in his presentation at the 14th National Party Congress, outlining breakthrough solutions to make science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation the central driving force of a new, rapid, and sustainable growth model.
Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Manh Hung presented his paper at the 14th National Party Congress on the morning of January 21st. (Photo: VNA)
The trio of science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation are the central driving forces of a new, rapid, and sustainable growth model in the era of knowledge-based and digital technology-driven development. Innovation is the central mechanism for transforming knowledge and digital technology into productivity, added value, and sustainable growth.
Agriculture has helped Vietnam escape poverty. Industry, FDI, processing, and assembly have transformed Vietnam into a high-middle-income country. The third stage of development, from middle to high income, must rely on science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation.
Science and technology create new knowledge and tools. But they are still far removed from reality. For this knowledge to reach the earth, innovation is needed to create products and services that serve life. Digital transformation is about rapidly spreading these products and services throughout society, creating rapid growth and ensuring no one is left behind.
Previously, countries entering the third stage of development basically had only one driving force: science and technology. But Vietnam, entering the third stage, the stage from per capita income of $5,000 to over $20,000, has three drivers of growth: science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation.
All three of these driving forces have been expanded in scope and redefined by the Party with a new approach, creating a broader development space and unleashing new resources to promote growth. With these three driving forces, we can achieve double-digit growth.
Resolution 57 of the Politburo has established the trio of science and technology, innovation, and national digital transformation as the top priority breakthroughs, the main driving force for the rapid development of modern productive forces, the improvement of production relations, the renewal of national governance methods, and the enhancement of the country's self-reliance and independence. Not only are these three elements covered in a single resolution, but they are also under the management of a single state agency.
Resolution 57 is like a "contractual agreement" resolution on science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation. The spirit of the "contractual agreement" in Resolution 57 is: Management by objectives, not by methods; empowering workers with autonomy and responsibility; accepting risks; evaluation based on overall effectiveness; workers benefiting from the fruits of their labor and creativity.
The "contractual agreement" is for escaping poverty. Resolution 57 is for escaping the middle-income trap. The "contractual agreement" is for liberating labor power. Resolution 57 is for liberating creativity. From a situation of lacking science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation, we will move towards sufficiency, surplus, export, and large-scale export, just as we have achieved with agriculture.
Each country has its own culture, context, level of development, and political system. No two countries have "transformed into dragons or tigers" in the same way. Therefore, finding the right approach to breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation, and digital transformation is crucial.
Vietnam's approach is under the comprehensive leadership of the Party. Building institutions becomes a competitive advantage.
This involves focusing on: - Enhancing national competitiveness, contributing to economic growth and improving the quality of life for the people.
- Developing within a complete and balanced ecosystem, encompassing institutions, infrastructure, human resources, the state, researchers, and businesses.
- Shifting from input-based management to output-based management.
- Placing science and technology within the context of innovation and digital transformation.
- Addressing major national challenges such as double-digit growth, productivity, quality, national governance, environmental pollution, smart cities, and hyper-dense cities. Vietnam's major challenge will be to create talent and attract global excellence.
- Self-reliance in core and strategic technologies is a crucial component of national sovereignty. It means moving from application, from products, from markets to mastering technology.
- It means allowing and encouraging the application of new things in practice, considering this the fastest and most effective way to form, perfect, and develop new technologies.
- It means fostering a spirit of innovation throughout the population, making innovation a way of life for all citizens and organizations. Building a culture that encourages exploration and tolerance of failure.
- It is a standard that must lead the way in guiding national development.
- Intellectual property must be considered an asset, something that can be valued, bought, sold, transferred, and exploited in the market. Intellectual property becomes a strategic competitive tool for businesses and nations. A developed nation is one where intangible assets, intellectual property, account for up to 80% of total assets.
Previously, science and technology focused primarily on research to create knowledge, but did not prioritize the creation of new products, services, or models – in other words, it did not focus on output.
For science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation to truly become the central drivers of growth, the first thing to do is to measure the contribution of these three elements to GDP growth. The Ministry of Science and Technology considers this the most important first step and is developing measurement methods at both the national and local levels. Because we deeply understand that what can be measured can be managed; what cannot be measured cannot be managed or promoted. Vietnam is one of the first countries to set a goal of measuring the impact of science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation on GDP growth. Measuring effectiveness is also a fundamental solution to combat waste.
In the long term, the priority order of the three is science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation. However, in Vietnam's context, from now until 2030, the priority order is digital transformation, innovation, and science and technology. Things that can be done quickly and yield quick results should be prioritized.
Digital transformation is primarily about transformation and changing operating methods. 70% is change, 30% is technology.
Digital transformation should be implemented immediately, 100%, not gradually. Gradually is not the right approach. Gradually is the way of doing things in the information technology era. Being able to achieve 100% immediately is possible because of the existing digital platform. One platform used nationwide, not deployed in individual localities or villages. Only with 100% digital transformation can it be truly seamless and achieve maximum effectiveness.
Digital transformation is about creating a digital version of the entire real world. It's about everyone having a virtual assistant. Then, Vietnam's strength will be doubled.
Innovation focuses on supporting technological innovation for businesses, as well as assisting businesses in testing new technologies.
To connect the heavens and earth, we need innovation centers. The Ministry of Science and Technology is advising the Government to direct each ministry, sector, and locality to have an innovation center.
Innovation also encompasses nationwide entrepreneurship, but it's entrepreneurship based on creativity and technology. The Politburo has tasked the Government with directing the Ministry of Science and Technology to develop a national strategy for innovative entrepreneurship, enabling everyone to start and operate a business with the support of national digital platforms.
Innovation also involves reforming management and business models, and this is what truly creates significant value.
The world is experiencing new waves that Vietnam can leverage for rapid growth: the wave of digitalization and AI; the green wave, clean energy and low-carbon economy; the wave of urbanization and new development spaces such as the low-income economy; and the wave of new institutions to create rules for the digital and knowledge-based era. These waves are all related to innovation. Vietnam can best utilize them because innovation is very well suited to Vietnamese culture and capabilities. If Vietnam wants to break through and rise, it must primarily rely on innovation and new growth spaces. New things need new institutions to survive and thrive. Therefore, new institutions are crucial for innovation and development.
Regarding spending on science and technology, it's important that every dollar spent by the state activates 3-4 dollars from businesses. In that case, 2% of the state's science and technology budget would become 2% of the entire society's GDP spent on science and technology. The Ministry of Science and Technology is finalizing a co-financing mechanism for research between the state and businesses.
Another important mechanism to increase the efficiency of the science and technology budget is to commission and purchase research results, or reward effective research results, instead of spending directly on research.
However, to ensure the nurturing of scientific research capacity, including basic science and social science research, we will still need to spend on knowledge input and accept the risks in output, but initially, this budget should be around 15-20% of the total science and technology budget.
Changing mindsets, perceptions, approaches, and methods are always the first factors determining the success of major policies and ambitious goals.
Science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation – these three driving forces will enable Vietnam to break through, escape the middle-income trap, and become a high-income developed country.
Minister Nguyen Manh Hung,
According to VnExpress