Hanoi (VNA) - As the world accelerates its shift toward green growth and digital transformation, Vietnam's National Brand Programme is becoming a launchpad to shove domestic firms out of low-margin contract manufacturing and into brand-driven innovative ownership.
The Vietnam National Brand Week 2026 is designed to boost public recognition of the programme, and deliver a new message on brand development as it enters a phase of rapid and sustainable growth.
Vu Ba Phu, Director General of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), made clear that Vietnamese brands wanting to compete globally must now be anchored in digital transformation, innovation, green growth, and national cultural identity, in an interview with the press.
Keeping pace with changing times
- What are the key goals of this year's Vietnam National Brand Week?
Vu Ba Phu: The National Brand Week is built to spread and raise awareness of the programme’s significance and role. It is also a stage to exhibit the sharp climb in Vietnam's national brand value on the global scoreboard in recent years.
- Why did the organising board choose the theme "Vietnam National Brand in a New Era" this year?
Vu Ba Phu: The theme mirrors both domestic and global realities. Global growth is now wired through digital transformation, sci-tech, and innovation.
Vietnam's strategic trajectory after the 14th National Party Congress lays out a vision of fast, sustainable development powered by the same engines.
Keeping up with these global trends, the National Brand Programme has locked in this theme to tether business activity to Vietnam's 2026–2035 development strategy and its outlook to 2045.
This demonstrates the MoIT's commitment to supporting firms. We want to underscore that Vietnamese products and corporate brands must evolve in lockstep with digital transformation, innovation, scientific and technological advance, and, critically, green transition and social responsibility.
Breaking the "made for others" mold
- After more than two decades, Vietnam's national brand value has risen steadily. But against the tougher demands of green transition and digital transformation, what will the ministry do to push Vietnamese brands higher?
Vu Ba Phu: Vietnam's national brand value has indeed posted rapid, attention-grabbing gains. But alongside that momentum, the cracks are visible. The growth is not yet durable, nor is it sufficiently rooted in innovation.
That is why the Vietnam National Brand Strategy, now being drafted by the MoIT, will put innovation, digital transformation, and green growth at the centre of its efforts to lift the value of national brand products in the coming years.
The strategy's sharp end will be to force a switch away from contract manufacturing for foreign labels and toward designing, producing, and marketing products and services under a company's own name.
Under the Politburo’s Resolution 80, Vietnamese cultural identity will receive particular focus. The plan is to fuse cultural values into brand development and establish culture as a defining feature of the value proposition of Vietnamese products and services going forward.
- To support the Politburo's double-digit economic growth goal, how should National Brand enterprises gear up for this new era?
Vu Ba Phu: As I have said, Vietnamese enterprises must leverage digital transformation and innovation to pack more value-added content into their products and services. They should treat these factors as key growth levers, enabling them to sharpen the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods and services in international markets and thrive in the new era.
- Thank you for your time!
