Moving up one place in 2026 and 16 places over the past decade, Viet Nam now ranks 43rd out of 139 economies assessed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) for innovation. Notably, its innovation output ranking rose two places, from 37th to 35th, helping to improve its overall performance.
The results mark progress, while also highlighting the need to translate the resources invested to date into research capacity, technological products, and greater efficiency in production and business operations.
Policy and resources begin to deliver results
At the launch of the Global Innovation Index (GII), WIPO Director General Daren Tang cited Viet Nam alongside China, India, Türkiye, the Philippines, Morocco, and Indonesia as the economies that had improved their rankings most rapidly since 2013. The WIPO report identified these seven middle-income economies as having made particularly notable advances in the rankings.
Viet Nam remains second among lower-middle-income economies, behind India, and third in ASEAN, after Singapore and Malaysia.
The country continues to rank first globally in two indicators: high-tech exports as a share of total exports and creative goods exports as a share of total exports. Viet Nam has also maintained a record of innovation performance above expectations for its level of development for 16 consecutive years.
Minister of Science and Technology Vu Hai Quan said the two-place rise in innovation outputs was a noteworthy achievement, indicating that policies and resources allocated to the sector were beginning to deliver results.
According to the minister, this progress is linked to the decisive implementation of Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW. Investment in science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation has increased substantially, while the policy and legal framework has been gradually strengthened. The involvement of the state, businesses, research institutes, and universities has helped lay the foundations for an innovation ecosystem.
Alongside increased resources, the approach to management is also changing, shifting from a focus on inputs towards tangible results and effectiveness. Resources are being prioritised for research and development, high technology, strategic technologies, and sectors with the potential to make a significant contribution to national development.
Several indicators point to improvements in the links between research and product development. Collaboration between universities and businesses in research rose seven places to 24th, while the number of researchers employed by businesses improved by two places to 49th. Patent applications by country of origin rose three places to 63rd, while production and export complexity climbed eight places to 44th.
From assessment index to policy tool
The 2026 GII assesses innovation capabilities through 79 individual indicators and identifies the world's top 100 innovation clusters. By examining both innovation inputs and outputs, the index helps each economy identify its strengths and weaknesses and the foundations requiring further investment.
Since 2017, Viet Nam has used the GII as a management and policy tool, assigning specific indicators to relevant ministries and sectors. This approach has established a cross-sector coordination mechanism, linking efforts to improve innovation capacity with the responsibilities of individual agencies.
The Ministry of Science and Technology serves as the focal point for monitoring and coordination, working with ministries, sectors, and local authorities to propose measures to strengthen national innovation capacity.
The use of the GII in policymaking is becoming increasingly widespread. According to WIPO's 2025–2026 survey, 93 member states use GII results when developing strategies and policies on science, technology, and innovation.
For Viet Nam, this year's results highlight areas where the foundations need to be strengthened. While innovation outputs improved in the rankings, innovation inputs fell from 50th to 54th. The human capital and research pillar dropped to 79th, institutions to 64th, and infrastructure to 59th. Scientific and technical publications ranked 106th, while receipts from intellectual property, fees, and licences ranked 110th.
These findings underline the need to link improvements in individual indicators to stronger real-world capabilities, including workforce quality, research capacity, and businesses' effectiveness in applying technology.
Businesses must play genuine role in next phase of progress
According to Minister Vu Hai Quan, to reach the GII's top 40 by 2030 and the top 30 by 2045, Viet Nam needs to focus on three key priorities.
The first is to improve the quality of human resources, particularly those serving strategic technology sectors and the pool of postgraduate-qualified talent. The second is to increase international scientific publications and patent numbers. Of particularly import is the expansion of business participation in research and innovation.
Businesses need to invest more heavily in both finance and people and integrate technology and digital transformation into production and business operations to improve product quality, increase added value, and raise labour productivity. The minister stressed that genuine business engagement was essential to achieving Viet Nam's innovation targets for 2030 and 2045.
As the focal point for coordinating efforts to improve the GII, the Ministry of Science and Technology will continue to refine the institutional framework in response to practical needs, promote investment in research and development, and attract international corporations to establish R&D centres and expand investment in high technology and strategic technologies.
The ministry will also promote funding for technology start-ups, foster innovation clusters and networks, develop technology businesses, and support the adoption, absorption, and mastery of technologies.
Improvements in the rankings must be followed by tangible results across the economy. As businesses continue to invest in research, research institutes and universities align their work with production needs, and ministries, sectors, and local authorities work together to remove bottlenecks, Viet Nam will become better positioned to turn innovation resources into products, higher productivity, and greater national competitiveness.
