Hanoi (VNA) – An article published on siliconcanals.com, an English-language technology media platform and online news site of the Netherlands, has highlighted that Vietnam has carried out its most significant reforms in decades, including a major leadership reshuffle, and these changes are expected to play a critical role in shaping Vietnam’s economic direction over the next 5–10 years.
The article, titled “Why Vietnam’s recent reforms could shape the next 5–10 years of growth”, describes the changes implemented by the Vietnamese Government over the past 12 months as impressive, noting that they represent deep and structural changes that open up room for real growth.
Among the changes believed to be pivotal for Vietnam’s next phase of economic development, the first is Resolution 68, which clearly signals that Vietnam’s growth will be driven by the private sector. This is a meaningful shift for sustainable and long-term growth.
Another key change is to bringing the informal economy into the formal system. Household businesses are estimated to account for around 20–30% of Vietnam’s GDP, yet tax collection from this group has historically been modest. Many of these businesses rely heavily on cash, lack technology, and operate outside formal systems—making them difficult to scale and inefficient over time.
The Vietnamese Government is now pushing these businesses to adopt POS systems, digital payments, and transparent accounting connected directly to tax authorities. This means higher taxes, but it also puts them on equal footing with formal enterprises that have followed the rules for years. The same applies to online sellers being brought into the official system. Everyone participating in the economy should operate under the same framework and have access to the same infrastructure and technology. That’s how a transparent, scalable, and efficient market is built, according to the writing.
The article also underscores tighter regulations, noting that for many years, market standards in Vietnam were relatively loose. In some sectors, this created serious distortions in competition. By removing players that rely on regulatory loopholes, tax evasion, or misleading practices, space is created for serious businesses to grow.
Cracking down on tax evasion, origin fraud, and low-quality production is uncomfortable in the short term—but essential if Vietnam wants a fair and competitive market in the long run, it notes.
The writing also points out many other reforms worth mentioning: provincial mergers, the rollout of electronic national IDs, and the broader digitalisation of government processes. These are complex, high-friction reforms, and hard to execute.
However, any deep structural reform will come with hiccups, resistance, and short-term inefficiencies. What matters most is that the country is moving in the right direction. If the direction is right, things tend to fall into place over time.
Vietnam’s economy can accelerate meaningfully over the next five years under the 2026–2031 leadership term. The country’s golden population period is nearing its end—most of the workforce is already 30+, and birth rates are at record lows. That likely gives it a 10-year window to make a real difference if Vietnam wants to move closer to developed-market status, according to the article./.
