Promoting breakthroughs in digital transformation has become a process of fundamental innovation in the operating models of the State, the economy, and society.
Institutions taking the lead
Viet Nam’s national digital transformation journey from 2020 to the present can be broadly characterised as a phase of laying foundations, marked by synchronous progress in awareness, institutional completion and innovation in implementation methods. The country has moved from shaping mindset to completing the legal framework, developing infrastructure and forming the pillars of digital government, digital economy, and digital society, opening up new development momentum in the digital era. This spirit was emphasised by Standing Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Vu Hai Quan at National Digital Transformation Day 2025 under the theme “Digital transformation: Faster – more effective – closer to the people”, setting the goal of nationwide, comprehensive and end-to-end digital transformation to create substantive breakthroughs for the digital economy.
Looking back on five years of implementation, the country has moved beyond the start-up phase and entered a period of acceleration, with outcomes increasingly measured in terms of growth value and social benefits. This development orientation fully aligns with the requirements of Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation, and national digital transformation, in which digital transformation is placed within the overall framework of breakthroughs in science, technology, and innovation, ensuring the unified leadership of the Party over the journey of building a digital nation, and closely linking the goal of modernising the apparatus with tangible benefits for the people.
In terms of infrastructure, national digital platforms have developed rapidly: internet speed ranks among the world’s top 10, with 26% of connections exceeding 1 Gb/s; IPv6 ranks second in ASEAN; and information security ranks 17th globally. The digital economy has affirmed its role as a driving force, with its share of GDP in 2025 estimated at 18.72%; 40.76% of adults possessing digital signatures; 87% of citizens having bank accounts; and the value of cashless payments reaching a record level 25 times GDP, reflecting society’s deep participation in the digital space.
In 2025, the digital technology industry continued to achieve strong breakthroughs. Total industry revenue was estimated at 198 billion USD, up 26% compared to 2024 and exceeding the plan by 16%; exports of hardware and electronics reached 178 billion USD, growing by 35% and fulfilling 112% of the plan, continuing to hold the position of a key export sector. More than 80,000 digital technology enterprises are currently operating, up 10% compared to 2024, demonstrating the vitality of the Make in Viet Nam business community.
On the basis of this infrastructure and economic performance, identification and data-sharing systems, from the National Population Database to the National Public Service Portal, have enabled citizens and businesses to conduct electronic transactions safely and conveniently. This process has helped institutions and policies to be continuously refined, becoming a prominent hallmark of the 13th Party Congress term, placing digital transformation within the overall development strategy in line with the spirit of Resolution No. 57.
A milestone of foundational significance was the National Assembly’s adoption of the Digital Transformation Law in 2025, a framework law that provides overall coordination and connects specialised laws such as the Law on Electronic Transactions, the Law on Data, the Law on Digital Technology Industry, and the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation. For the first time, the law establishes a unified legal basis for the pillars of digital government, digital economy, and digital society, while stipulating that at least 1% of the annual state budget be allocated to this field, affirming data as a strategic resource for development.
A key highlight of the law is the user-centred approach with the principle of “one-time declaration as default”, promoting data connectivity and reuse, helping to reduce duplicated procedures and improve decision-making quality.
Alongside this, numerous resolutions and decrees issued in 2025 have removed bottlenecks in technology investment, development of shared platforms and public-private partnerships; sandbox mechanisms have been codified, opening space for innovation.
Data as the operational axis, people at the centre
On the institutional foundation unlocked during the 13th Party Congress term, the digital transformation process has shifted from “digitising processes” to data-driven governance, with shared digital platforms becoming the central operational axis.
In deploying digital government, the most evident change has been linking digitisation with administrative procedure reform, using service outcomes for citizens and businesses as the yardstick; the proportion of fully online dossiers has continued to rise, reflecting a shift from formal provision to substantive operation.
The Government has designated VNeID as the sole tool for electronic procedures; connectivity between the National Population Database and sectoral databases has been strengthened. Drawing from the practice of Project 06, Major General Vu Van Tan, Director of the Police Department for Administrative Management of Social Order (Ministry of Public Security), emphasised that building and effectively exploiting databases is a prerequisite for developing digital government, digital economy and digital society. By the end of 2025, 32 out of 105 databases under the roadmap had been formed; 16 databases had relatively complete platforms, gradually meeting the requirements of being “accurate, sufficient, clean, live, unified, and shared”, forming the basis for process restructuring and paper replacement.
Viet Nam is expanding the digital economy and digital society from the digital government foundation, where technological achievements are transformed into growth value and social welfare serving the people, with data regarded as a strategic resource and people as the centre of all digital service design.
At a deeper level, the process has clearly shifted from “digital enterprises” to the “digital economy”, treating data as an input for productivity and new products and services, paving the way for business models based on artificial intelligence and big data. Data, once a closed administrative asset, is gradually becoming a development resource, laying the foundation for a future data economy.
Alongside digital economic growth, the digital society is being promoted in an inclusive direction, enabling people to participate more conveniently in digital life through widespread electronic identification, personal digital signatures, and essential digital services.
Community digital technology groups and the “Digital Literacy for All” movement have been widely deployed, gradually narrowing the digital divide between regions and population groups, realising the goal of “leaving no one behind”. The orientation that “the digital economy is the driving force, the digital society is the foundation, and people are the centre” continues to be concretised in Resolution No. 57, creating a bridge between apparatus modernisation and tangible benefits for the people.
However, summary reports have candidly identified fundamental bottlenecks in the digital transformation process. Institutional systems and guiding documents in certain fields have not been issued synchronously, while infrastructure and the quality of digital human resources vary markedly at the grassroots level. Data standardisation and integration have progressed more slowly than practical requirements; pressures related to information security and safety, along with the task of personal data protection, are increasing. In the public service sector alone, the proportion of fully online dossiers has reached only 51.7%, and the habit of submitting paper documents remains widespread, reducing the effectiveness of process restructuring. The development of shared platforms across ministries and sectors remains fragmented, and investment resources for data are spread thinly, resulting in modernisation not keeping pace with the accelerating rhythm of digital life.
Reality shows that the rapid pace of transformation is outstripping the adjustment capacity of mechanisms and policies, necessitating stronger solutions to ensure sustainable development and a citizen- and business-centred service orientation.
The causes of these shortcomings are linked to the insufficient role of heads of some agencies, and investment and training in digital skills not keeping pace with the speed of innovation. Therefore, from the practical implementation of Resolution No. 57, the core lesson is to remain steadfast in the principle of “Party leadership, State facilitation, business pioneering, local leadership, and public participation”; to regard data as a strategic resource, shifting from a mindset of “holding” to “connecting and sharing to create new value”, while closely linking this with requirements for security, safety, and personal data protection.
Entering the 2026–2030 period, the foundation that has been built will serve as a springboard for acceleration, with the ultimate measure being real benefits and satisfaction for citizens and businesses, ensuring that digital transformation truly becomes a driver of rapid and sustainable development in the country’s new phase.
