Establishing a New Growth Model to Propel the Country to a Strong Takeoff

The draft documents of the 14th Party Congress emphasize the need to establish a new growth model, with science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation as the main driving forces.

In the context of the shrinking potential of the traditional growth model, revitalizing existing drivers while creating new ones has become a prerequisite for enhancing competitiveness and enabling the country to take off firmly into the new era.

Restructuring the economy in conjunction with innovation of growth model

Following the implementation of the 13th National Party Congress Resolution, the Government has consistently promoted growth drivers alongside a strong economic restructuring. Within this overall context, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has continued to affirm its core role as a strategic pillar, making significant contributions to the process of innovating the growth model.

According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Phan Thị Thắng, the industry and trade sector continues to be one of the main drivers of growth, contributing to the realization of development goals toward autonomy, modernization, green transformation, digital transformation, and deep, effective international integration.

Industrial production has shown a clear recovery, with an average growth rate of 6.1% per year. Notably, the processing and manufacturing sector—the central driver of growth—achieved an average annual increase of 6.9%, expanding the overall industry’s scale to nearly 1.5 times that at the beginning of the term. Many key industries, such as electronics, textiles and garments, footwear, and agricultural processing, have successfully integrated into global value chains, gradually affirming Vietnam’s position within them.

The energy sector has recorded strong growth. The power system has risen to rank among the top 20 countries globally and leads Southeast Asia, ensuring energy security while shifting the energy structure toward greener and more sustainable sources, in line with global trends.

Imports and exports continue to be a standout highlight, with an average growth rate of 10.9% per year; in 2025, the total reached over 930 billion USD, double the figure at the beginning of the term.

The domestic market continued to grow steadily, averaging 7.7% per year, becoming a key pillar of the economy amid multiple external shocks. E-commerce grew by over 20% annually, placing Vietnam among the top 10 fastest-growing countries in the world and creating an important driver for the digital economy and enterprise digital transformation. International economic integration was implemented in a coordinated and effective manner, with participation in 17 free trade agreements, opening access to a market of nearly 6 billion consumers.

These achievements have laid a solid foundation for the process of restructuring the economy in association with the renewal of the growth model pursued by the Government. During the term, the Government directed the implementation of comprehensive, timely, and effective measures and policies to promote growth; strengthened traditional growth drivers (investment, consumption, exports) and fostered new industries, sectors, and economic models.

The share of the industrial and service sectors in GDP increased from 78.6% in 2020 to 80.5% in 2025. The digital economy grew at an average rate of 9–10% per year, accounting for 14–15% of GDP in 2025. The processing and manufacturing industry recorded substantial growth, contributing around 25% of GDP. Several large-scale industrial sectors with international competitiveness have emerged.

The agricultural sector has been restructured toward a modern, ecological, and sustainable model, with labor productivity rising from 71.9 million VND in 2020 to over 105 million VND in 2025. Vietnam has 11 agricultural export products exceeding 1 billion USD each, maintaining its position as a major agricultural export powerhouse.

The draft Political Report submitted to the 14th Party Congress evaluates that, despite facing numerous difficulties and challenges, with determination, aspiration for development, future-oriented vision, innovative thinking, great effort, and decisive action, the entire Party, the whole people, and the armed forces have united and successfully implemented the resolutions of the 13th Party Congress.

A prominent highlight is the high economic growth, achieving the set targets while maintaining macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation effectively, and ensuring the major balances of the economy. The restructuring of the economy linked with the renewal of the growth model has been vigorously promoted towards digitalization and green transformation, enhancing domestic capacity and resilience, and actively participating in global value chains based on science, technology, and innovation.

From 2021 to 2025, GDP grew at an average rate of 6.3% per year, placing Vietnam among the high-growth countries in the region and globally. The estimated GDP in 2025 exceeds USD 510 billion, 1.47 times higher than in 2020, ranking 32nd in the world, with a per capita GDP of around USD 5,000, entering the group of upper-middle-income countries and receiving high recognition from many reputable international organizations. Total factor productivity (TFP) contributed approximately 47% to growth, indicating a clear improvement in the quality of growth.

However, the growth model based on cheap labor, natural resources, and land has reached its limit, and the scope for expansion through scale is rapidly narrowing. The requirement now is to shift strongly toward growth driven by productivity, technology, and innovation, with the quality of human resources and domestic capabilities being the decisive factors.

Establishing a new growth model

In the next five years, the country is expected to face numerous difficulties and challenges. To enhance the competitiveness of the economy, the draft Political Report of the 14th Party Congress emphasizes establishing a new growth model aimed at improving productivity, quality, efficiency, value added, and economic competitiveness. This model positions science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation as the main drivers; fosters high-quality production capacity and new modes of production, with a focus on the data economy and digital economy; and promotes digital transformation, green transition, energy transition, structural transformation, and the upgrading of human resource quality.

Identify new growth drivers and place science and technology at the center to revitalize traditional drivers. Establish strong growth poles, key economic regions, cities, and next-generation economic zones on par with regional and global standards.

According to Standing Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Hòa Bình, the demands of the new era require Vietnam to “renew” existing growth drivers while creating new ones with high intellectual and technological content, fully leveraging the digital economy, green economy, and circular economy. This calls for placing science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation at the core of growth; decisively implementing the strategy for semiconductor and artificial intelligence (AI) development; and building nationally significant data centers and innovation hubs at a regional scale.

A special, exceptional mechanism that accepts certain risks is needed to continue attracting and retaining the world’s leading technology corporations to Vietnam; to promote innovation-driven startups across society; and to encourage businesses to invest in the development and application of science and technology, especially new and high-tech technologies.

Vietnam’s economy is undergoing a strong qualitative shift, moving from breadth to depth. Green economy and energy transition have become key trends, with strong commitments to Net Zero. The country must push forward comprehensively on three major transitions: digital transformation, green transition, and energy infrastructure—an inevitable trend of the era. This includes vigorously developing the carbon credit market and promoting a circular economy. Modernizing the smart grid, expanding renewable energy, gas-fired power, and offshore wind power is essential to ensure national energy security and support high economic growth. These factors are also among the top considerations for foreign investors when deciding to invest in Vietnam.

The recent establishment of Vietnam’s International Financial Center (IFC) in Da Nang is a pioneering move and a strategic “boost” to create new growth drivers and develop key sectors such as green finance and financial technology (Fintech). Deputy Prime Minister Nguyễn Hòa Bình stated that the creation of the International Financial Center has been recognized by the Party and State as a way to unlock resources, promote a growth model transformation linked with economic restructuring, enhance productivity, efficiency, and national competitiveness, contributing to leading the country into a new era—an era of prosperity, wealth, civilization, and the well-being of the people.

Deputy Chairman of the Executive Authority of Vietnam’s IFC in Da Nang, Mr. Đặng Đình Đức, stated that the IFC in Da Nang aims to become a testing and digital financial trading hub with an important role within the network of financial centers in the Asia-Pacific region. It will specialize in asset digitization and providing next-generation green finance and supply chain financing solutions. The goal is to establish the center as an international financial hub oriented toward innovation, green and sustainable finance, operating safely and efficiently, with a key role in mobilizing and allocating financial resources for socio-economic development and regional financial integration.

The Standing Deputy Prime Minister noted that we have recognized the limitations of a period of attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) based on outdated technology and low-cost labor. The requirement for the next generation of FDI is that it must have high intellectual content, large investment intensity, deliver significant value and efficiency, and, importantly, include technology transfer so that Vietnam can master core technologies.

In addition, the role of the private economy must be further strengthened. The Draft Document of the 14th National Congress emphasizes that while developing the state-owned economy remains a leading role, fostering the private economy is the most important driver of the national economy. In recent years, the Party and the State have implemented major policies to promote the private sector, notably Resolution 68-NQ/TW of the Party Central Committee, which has unlocked resources and paved the way for private economic development. In practice, the private sector is capable of undertaking key national projects. Private enterprises are already involved in building expressways and airports. Therefore, in the coming period, the Party Central Committee’s policy is to be ready to assign strategic projects and national-level tasks to the private sector.

Referring to the core role of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in driving new growth engines, Deputy Minister Phan Thị Thắng stated that the Ministry continues to promptly institutionalize the Party’s guidelines, perfect mechanisms and policies in the spirit of Resolution 66-NQ/TW, considering the “dual transformation” – green transition and digital transition – as a breakthrough of breakthroughs, creating a transparent investment environment and removing bottlenecks for production and business.

The Ministry has also vigorously renewed its development mindset, restructuring the industry and trade sectors to enhance productivity, quality, and competitiveness; making science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, and the private sector the main driving forces. The focus is on developing foundational and strategic industries, gradually mastering technology in emerging sectors, and attracting coordinated investment in energy, industry, trade, and logistics infrastructure in a modern, green, and digital manner, aligned with the requirements of deep integration.

Alongside this, the Ministry is comprehensively upgrading and developing the production and supply chain to increase the economy’s self-reliance and enhance its position in the global value chain. Strong policies are in place to support domestic enterprises in integrating deeply into the supply chains of major corporations and foreign-invested enterprises, while promoting technology transfer and management skill development.

According to Professor Dr. Nguyễn Xuân Thắng, Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and Chair of the Central Theoretical Council, in the context of the world strongly shifting toward the digital economy, green economy, and energy transition, human resources have become a core competitive factor. Vietnam needs to build a growth model based on higher productivity, quality, and added value. This is a prerequisite to leveraging national advantages, achieving breakthroughs in productivity and economic competitiveness, and aiming for sustainable double-digit growth.