Vietnam Economic Times June, 01 2026

Dear readers,

As mentioned in last week’s edition of Vietnam Economic Times, in order to achieve the goal of making Vietnam a developed, high-income country by 2045, a pressing requirement is to strongly reform the country’s development model as it enters the new era.

To meet this requirement, the Central Commission for Policy and Strategy is preparing a project entitled “Reforming Vietnam’s Development Model Based on Science, Technology, Innovation, and Digital Transformation.” The associated national scientific conference on the topic, hosted by the Commission in Hai Phong on May 26, achieved unexpected results and represented an important step forward for the endeavor.

In his opening speech, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nghi, Politburo Member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, and Chairman of the Central Commission for Policy and Strategy, emphasized that the documents from the 14th Party Congress confirmed the need to reform the national development model toward modernization, sustainability, digitization, and knowledge-based approaches, with science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation serving as the main driving forces for the country’s rapid and sustainable development.

As a result, the conference clarified the theoretical foundations for and domestic and international experience in a national development model, while focusing on reforming Vietnam’s model, with science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation serving as a foundation.

The conference also assessed the current state of Vietnam’s development model after 40 years of implementing the “Doi Moi” (Economic Renewal) policy, emphasizing that the guideline for reforming the model based on science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation approved by the 14th National Party Congress will act as a foundation for reshaping a new model for the country.

Based on this, the conference established the main contents of the national development model for the 2026-2045 period, while proposing objectives, roadmaps, tasks, and solutions for reforming the model based on science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation.

Mr. Doan Minh Huan, Politburo Member and Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, affirmed that the results of the gathering have initially helped “shape a relatively systematic framework of understanding about the national development model in the new era, in which science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation play a foundational role, serving as the central driving force for modern national governance and reforming development methods.”

To provide readers with updated information on Vietnam’s policy for reforming its national development model in the new era, our Cover Story in this edition reflects on and analyzes matters discussed at the conference, with a view to clarifying the concept of a new development model and its structural framework and specific components, to distinguish it from the growth model, while highlighting the theoretical and practical significance of the research results for the new development model in the process of planning and organizing the implementation of development strategies, with the ultimate goal of securing consensus, both theoretically and perceptually, on shaping the new development model for the country based on science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation, along with breakthrough solutions in many aspects, primarily institutional reforms to enable development.

Warmest regards

Dr. CHU VAN LAM
CHAIRMAN OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD