Vietnam’s economy showed strong signs of acceleration in the third quarter, creating greater room for expansion in the final months of the year.

More than eight decades since the National Day on September 2, 1945, Vietnam stands before a major development ambition: moving faster to narrow the gap with advanced nations.

Vietnam’s domestic consumption continued to expand strongly in the first eight months of 2026, while tourism maintained its robust recovery momentum, according to the National Statistics Office under the Ministry of Finance.

A government can regulate better without regulating more. For Vietnam, that principle could be central to building a more stable, predictable and business-friendly institutional framework.

Vietnam has maintained average annual GDP growth of 6.4 percent, twice the global average. To achieve its goal of becoming a high-income country, it will need new growth drivers.

National Assembly deputy Be Trung Anh says ethnic minority intellectuals should not simply “leave the mountains,” but help pave the way for mountainous communities to develop alongside the rest of the country.

Vietnam’s exports rose 22.4% in the first eight months of 2026, but a 35.3% jump in imports turned last year’s trade surplus into a $20.46 billion deficit.

The 2025-2026 period has marked an important transformation for Vietnam, with major breakthroughs in institutions, infrastructure, the economy and society.

From an economy barely one-eighth the size of the Philippines in 1990, Vietnam has surged ahead of its regional peer, moved closer to Thailand and narrowed its income gap with Indonesia. Yet the journey toward high-income status remains challenging.

Vietnam wants to become a developed, high-income nation by 2045. Reaching that goal will depend not only on faster growth, but on building the capabilities to sustain it.

The US, China, Japan, Singapore and other countries are following differing paths in developing a low-altitude economy. For Vietnam, the lesson lies in opening its low-altitude airspace gradually while building the capacity to manage data and safety.

Vietnam is seeking to move beyond a growth model built on cheap labor, capital and natural resources as it charts a path toward high-income status by 2045.

A development model based on productivity, knowledge and technology requires long-term capital, a skilled workforce, innovation capacity, technology absorption and incentives for long-term invest.

A faster-growing Vietnam will need far more capital and power, setting the stage for a new investment cycle spanning finance, energy, infrastructure and electrical equipment.

To ascend to a higher stage of development, Vietnam must execute three strategic transformations, with institutional reform serving as the decisive lever.

Vietnam is not short of money for investment when viewed across the economy. Yet domestic businesses remain hungry for capital, banks are scrambling for deposits and interest rates are proving stubborn.

Lower rates, faster credit and double-digit growth are all desirable. Achieving them without destabilizing inflation, the currency or banks is the harder part.

After four decades of Doi Moi (renewal), Vietnam is seeking to shift its growth model away from capital, natural resources and low-cost labour towards productivity, technology and innovation.

With around 1 million businesses in Vietnam, 98% of them small and medium-sized enterprises, the proposed Law on SME Development is, in practical terms, a law for the development of Vietnam's private business sector.