In his article "Institutional and Legal Breakthroughs for the Nation to Rise," Party Chief To Lam delivered a clear message: institutions and laws must become the foundation to release resources, unleash production capacity, and open new opportunities for development.

To achieve this, Vietnam can no longer compromise with long-standing shortcomings in policy design, in implementation structures, or in governance approaches that still lean more toward control than toward creation.

Looking back at the major resolutions issued in quick succession during this period, covering science and technology, international integration, the private economy, energy security, education, healthcare, and reform of lawmaking and law enforcement, it is clear that there has been an effort to turn mindset into action.

On that basis, the Government submitted to the National Assembly concrete action programs to institutionalize these directions, with clear objectives, roadmaps, evaluation indicators, and accountability assigned to each ministry, branch, and locality.

Crucially, instead of leaving resolutions on paper, implementation has been directly tied to timelines, deliverables, and administrative discipline. This approach has gradually built confidence that institutions are not just promises, but commitments that can be verified.

That confidence could be clearly seen in the movement of national infrastructure in 2025. The three strategic breakthroughs were strongly advanced, not only opening up new development space but also creating a very tangible sense of “action capacity.”

A total of 564 projects and works were launched or inaugurated nationwide, with total investment exceeding VND5.14 quadrillion, of which more than VND3.8 quadrillion came from the private sector.

Nearly 3,200 km of the main North–South expressway were completed on key sections, and more than 1,700 km of coastal roads were put into operation; interchanges, feeder roads, seaports, energy projects, and major hospitals came into use; Long Thanh Airport welcomed its first technical flight; and long-term vision projects such as Gia Binh Airport and Hon Khoai Port began laying their first foundations.

These signals show that when institutional bottlenecks begin to be untied, social resources are more willing to shift into long-term, strategically significant projects to break the infrastructure deadlock.

From this perspective, infrastructure is not only about improving people’s lives or enhancing national logistics capacity; it is also a yardstick for the improvement of quality of the policy environment and the credibility of implementation mechanisms.

However, for institutional reform to avoid becoming one-sided, it is necessary to heed candid warnings from researchers and the business community.

Nguyen Dinh Cung, former head of the Central Institute for Economic Management, pointed out that business freedom in Vietnam, although it has made significant progress, has yet to fully align with the principle of “being allowed to do business in all fields not prohibited by law.”

The “investment policy approval” procedure still exists as an intermediate layer of management, consuming time and costs while increasing legal risks for investors. Meanwhile, the system of conditional business fields, with thousands of corresponding requirements, creates dense barriers, particularly disadvantaging domestic private enterprises.

He also emphasized a reality rarely stated outright: when legal regulations overlap and allow multiple interpretations, “doing things right” is not always feasible, and businesses must operate under a constant shadow of legal risk.

Alongside this are old bottlenecks that have yet to be thoroughly resolved - difficulty accessing land at reasonable cost, lack of long-term capital for breakthroughs, and constraints in research, development, and innovation.

Nearly 3,000 projects worth $345 billion still remain stalled due to a host of institutional and legal obstacles.

However, while reality remains complex, with gaps still to be filled, what matters is that the reform spirit is being maintained in a constructive direction: candidly acknowledging shortcomings without pessimism, encouraging progress without obscuring what still needs fixing.

Institutional reform is clearly not just about removing visible bottlenecks, but also the driving force that allows the private sector to feel secure in going further, daring to invest for the long term, and trusting in its own future.

At the same time, it must ensure that infrastructure projects are not only bigger and longer, but also more efficient in operation and better at spreading value to the community.

Tu Giang