Spatial resources for growth

Industry 4.0 has reshaped national development models around three key pillars: digital transformation, green transition, and circular transformation. Human capital, financial capital, and natural resources remain the core inputs underpinning productive capacity and economic strength. However, the way labor, capital, and physical resources are organized, allocated, and connected is undergoing profound change. Countries are shifting from growth models driven by capital and physical resources toward those powered by science, technology, innovation, and sustainability, placing people at the center.

A critical element of this new model is the governance of spatial resources. Leading countries have increasingly adopted comprehensive resource management strategies based on three-dimensional (3D) and four-dimensional (4D, including time) spatial frameworks. This approach spans sovereign territory from the Earth’s core to the atmosphere, treating land and territorial space as “means of production,” “development platforms,” and multidimensional ecosystems. 

Effective governance of these resources requires integrated national land-use planning tools that allocate and zone land by spatial function - sub-surface, surface, and airspace - to simultaneously support socio-economic development, national defense, security, environmental protection, biodiversity conservation, and climate adaptation.

Shift in strategic thinking

To realize this vision, Vietnam must establish geographic information system (GIS) infrastructure ensuring that all national resources - from forests, mineral reserves, and urban land funds to radio spectrum space - are digitally cataloged and assigned precise geospatial coordinates. The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) serves as the backbone of the digital economy and modern governance. 

More than a map repository, the NSDI is a comprehensive framework encompassing institutions, data-sharing policies, technical standards, technologies, and networks of agencies responsible for data collection, creating a strong foundation for management and development.

The operation of multilayer thematic mapping technologies and digital twin systems for managing national resources, from the Earth’s core to the atmosphere, depends on the convergence of five advanced technological pillars.

The first pillar is big data, serving as the “storage brain” that processes and maintains thousands of digital data layers generated by agencies at all levels. The system integrates datasets ranging from geology, hydrology, and infrastructure to demographics and healthcare, with each data point geotagged into a unified data lake to support more effective national decision-making.

The second pillar is AI and machine learning, functioning as the “analytical brain” that automates analysis and forecasting in a constantly changing spatial environment. Advanced algorithms can automatically analyze and validate information collected from remote sensing imagery, drones, street cameras, and citizen feedback. 

The third pillar is the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart sensors, essential for creating a living digital replica closely aligned with reality. Millions of IoT devices act as “sensory organs,” embedded in infrastructure, transport networks, underground pipelines, and natural environments to continuously measure indicators such as temperature, water flow, pressure, and vibration. This network generates uninterrupted real-time data, ensuring the digital twin remains synchronized with the constantly evolving physical world and provides a comprehensive, up-to-date view.

The fourth pillar, cloud computing, acts as the “circulatory system” linking the national information infrastructure and breaking down data silos across ministries and sectors. It provides the foundation for centralized, synchronized information management. 

The fifth pillar is blockchain technology, integrated as both a “security wall” and a “trust engine” to protect the entire data ecosystem. By recording data in real time and maintaining immutable records of every adjustment, permit, or transaction, blockchain strengthens transparency and security while ensuring only authorized individuals can access or modify databases. 

The integration of the NSDI, the National Digital Cadastral Database (NDCD), and the five technological pillars of the digital twin creates a digital replica of the country’s entire physical space. Multilayer thematic mapping enables the government to visualize and manage economic and social development, as well as environmental protection, in an integrated manner. 

From transport infrastructure, seaports, border gates, and toll booths to the positioning of public transport vehicles, all assets can be monitored and updated continuously. The system also manages telecommunications infrastructure; tourism facilities, resorts, restaurants, hotels, and travel routes; healthcare and educational systems; and cultural and sports facilities. At the same time, it supports environmental pollution control, biodiversity monitoring, climate adaptation, and the management of solid, liquid, and gaseous waste.

In addition, the system integrates financial infrastructure, including treasury operations, banks, and credit institutions; supports public asset and cadastral management; and incorporates postal codes and public service user behavior analysis, creating a comprehensive and intelligent governance ecosystem.

Land value capture and spatial finance

Integrated spatial planning is not only a tool for territorial organization but also a macro-financial instrument for managing a nation’s most valuable public asset: sovereign territory. In modern urban governance, public infrastructure investments, such as high-speed railways, airports, and expressways, or planning adjustments that increase land-use intensity, often generate enormous increases in the value of surrounding private real estate. Without mechanisms to recapture part of this windfall, public budgets face growing pressure while a small group of private actors captures disproportionate gains.

Land Value Capture (LVC) is a spatial finance mechanism that allows communities to recover and reinvest increases in land value generated by public investment or planning decisions. LVC mechanisms take many forms, including betterment levies, impact fees, linkage fees, and voluntary contributions from high-density development projects. From a property rights perspective, rezoning land use or granting permits for high-rise development effectively amounts to the State “privatizing” part of public space. Such transfers should not occur without compensation.

Spatial data management through multilayer thematic mapping enables governments to more accurately value and charge for the use of surface land, underground infrastructure, and airspace development. Granting higher development density should therefore be accompanied by financial obligations that reinvest value into public goods, ensuring fairness and long-term sustainability.

The Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) model has been widely implemented in many jurisdictions. In countries such as India and the US, development rights above transit hubs have been actively commercialized, directly linking public transport systems with commercial real estate. Supported by multidimensional cadastral systems, these “spatial rights” are increasingly treated as tangible assets that can be traded, mortgaged, and legally-registered in national databases, opening new avenues for development financing.

Creating new economic spaces

Spatial planning in the ecological era requires that territories be divided into clearly-defined functional zones that balance economic use with the preservation of natural capital. Unlike fragmented development, multilayer thematic mapping under an integrated national spatial planning framework would establish three categories of zones: strictly protected areas, restricted development areas, and development-priority areas, creating the basis for balanced and sustainable growth.

Integrated spatial planning is also a prerequisite for the circular economy and green transition. Circular transformation cannot occur solely at the level of individual enterprises; it must be organized through industrial clusters where waste or excess heat from one facility becomes an input for another. Applying material flow mapping through GIS platforms enables the optimization of these closed-loop supply chains, reducing logistics costs and carbon emissions while supporting sustainable development goals.

With more than 3,260 km of coastline and a vast exclusive economic zone, the “blue economy” is a vital pillar of Vietnam’s long-term development. What distinguishes the blue economy from the traditional marine economy is its emphasis on the sustainability of ocean ecosystems. Marine spatial planning, supported by the NDCD, enables simultaneous management of surface waters, water columns, seabeds, and subsurface marine areas. 

Beyond traditionally-governed domains, the low-altitude economy and the space economy are opening new frontiers for growth. The low-altitude economy operates within airspace below 3,000 meters and includes drone manufacturing, urban air mobility, low-altitude logistics, and precision agriculture. Three-dimensional thematic mapping technology enables the digitization of “low-altitude flight corridors,” dividing airspace into dynamic safety matrices. Governments can regulate licensing, radio frequencies, and airspace usage rights, transforming urban airspace into a new category of economic asset and public revenue source.

Meanwhile, the space economy, including satellite orbit management, satellite internet, and remote sensing, forms a critical foundation of the data economy. Satellite imagery collected from space serves as a core input for updating topographic maps, monitoring climate change, and supporting the verification cycle within the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) framework for integrated national land-use planning.

Restructuring social foundations

People are at the center of development. Investment in healthcare and education is a direct investment in human capital, aimed at improving quality of life and enhancing the physical and intellectual well-being of society. Vietnam’s Law on Identity and Project No. 06 have marked a transformative turning point by introducing a unified personal identification number through which citizens interact with the entire public service system.

This digital identity is directly linked to land databases, creating a comprehensive governance profile for each individual. Unified citizen data can connect social insurance, health insurance, tax identification, population management, electronic health records, student identification systems, Party membership, civil servant and public employee records, and public service user accounts, while also integrating with banking and treasury systems. 

In the digital era, the most valuable asset of an economy is no longer oil but user data. Overreliance on cross-border technology platforms poses growing risks to data security and digital sovereignty. A strategic priority is therefore to strengthen the personal digital identity system to ensure consistency across public services, while taking initial steps toward building a Vietnamese digital ecosystem and social network. Leveraging the strength of nearly 100 million domestic users, starting with students, civil servants, and public employees, such platforms could become spaces for policy communication, social interaction, and the development of an autonomous digital economy.

Investment in healthcare should extend beyond building new hospitals to restructuring the entire healthcare system around smart, preventive care supported by multilayer thematic mapping. Priority should be given to preventive healthcare systems capable of early disease detection and control, alongside primary healthcare networks built around family doctors connected to commune and ward health stations.

Technology plays a central role through the development of a lifelong electronic health record linked to each citizen’s digital identity. These records would store medical histories, treatment data, and interoperable test results across healthcare tiers and satellite hospitals, eliminating costly duplication in diagnosis and treatment.

AI-powered healthcare applications could further support disease prevention by delivering public health guidance, recommending initial care measures, directing citizens to the most appropriate healthcare facilities based on geospatial healthcare mapping, and coordinating referrals more efficiently. Combined with real-time epidemiological monitoring, such systems would significantly strengthen national preparedness and responsiveness to public health challenges.

In the digital age, education systems must be fundamentally restructured to prioritize lifelong learning, self-directed study, creativity, entrepreneurship, and self-reliance. Educational philosophy should revolve around the principles of “learning to know, learning to do, learning to be, learning to live together, and learning to become fully human,” with the goal of cultivating globally-competitive citizens capable of absorbing global knowledge and succeeding in international labor markets.

A key reform in general education management is the establishment of detailed learning outcome standards for every educational level, grade, and lesson. New curricula should not rely solely on textbooks but also include standardized model video lessons developed by top educators and aligned with learning outcomes. Through interactive television and online education platforms, teachers in remote areas could use these resources to enhance classroom instruction, promoting equal access and establishing a consistent national education standard.

For career orientation, adopting Germany’s dual vocational training model represents a strategic direction. Students would combine classroom learning with continuous workplace training, ensuring stronger alignment between education and labor market needs. The system should support lifelong learning in life skills while providing specialized pathways across a broad range of occupations, helping standardize practical competencies and meet labor market demand more effectively.

Assessment systems should also be standardized, with competency- and knowledge-based examinations spanning general education, vocational training, and higher education. These systems should evaluate not only knowledge, but also skills, attitudes, autonomy, and applied competencies through online testing. Within the public sector, civil servant and public employee training should transition significantly toward online learning, reducing the time and cost of centralized training while maintaining rigorous, transparent competency assessments through standardized digital examinations.

Spatial performance budgeting

For systems such as the NSDI, the NDCD, healthcare, and education to function effectively, public financial management must be fundamentally reformed. Traditional line-item budgeting, often associated with rigid, fragmented spending and inefficiencies, should be replaced by an outcome-based budgeting system.

Performance-based budgeting is essential to safeguarding national resources. Public expenditure should operate through a medium-term framework aligned with development strategies while applying a “rolling annual adjustment” mechanism to maintain flexibility amid macro-economic changes. Whether for recurrent expenditure or development investment, every unit of public spending must be tied to measurable outcomes that directly support growth objectives, ensuring efficiency and accountability.

A key innovation in the Vietnamese context lies in integrating outcome-based budgeting with multilayer thematic mapping systems. The management of spatial resources, public assets, land, minerals, environmental protection, and budget allocation would be guided by spatial statistics and geospatial indicators. By layering data on population, employment, and public service density through GIS platforms, policymakers can gain a comprehensive and visual understanding of geographic inequality, enabling more targeted and evidence-based decisions.

Investment prioritization can also be automated through spatial algorithms. Areas experiencing shortages of schools, hospitals, transport infrastructure, cultural institutions, sports facilities, or unusually high unemployment rates would automatically be flagged for priority budget allocation in the relevant sectors. Evidence from Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and Latin America suggests that presenting budget allocation data through geographic mapping not only enhances transparency but also improves poverty reduction outcomes and narrows urban-rural development gaps.

Spatial budget management, when combined with land value capture mechanisms and digital identity systems, forms a powerful governance triangle capable of accelerating national development strategies.

As space becomes digitized, governments can implement land value capture policies to redistribute gains generated by land-use conversion and increased development density. These mechanisms can unlock substantial resources for infrastructure development while supporting emerging growth models such as the blue economy, the circular economy, and the low-altitude economy, paving the way for a more diversified and sustainable economy.

Ultimately, infrastructure and technology reforms must serve people. The integration of spatial databases, unified digital citizen identities, intelligent preventive healthcare systems, and lifelong learning models can create an ecosystem that nurtures talent and strengthens human capital. By allocating budgets based on measurable outcomes and spatial data, the new development model establishes an institutional environment where individual incentives align with national interests, creating the momentum for Vietnam to become a prosperous, self-reliant, and globally-competitive nation.