Why high-tech talent will define Vietnam’s growth

Why high-tech talent will define Vietnam’s growth

Why high-tech talent will define Vietnam’s growth Having the talent and skills is imperative for Vietnam to rise up and meet its developmental goals. Dr. Nguyen Hoang Ha from the Country Office for Vietnam of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Vietnam looks at how human resources will play a role in the nation’s long-term vision.

Vietnam’s next growth phase will depend less on labour costs and more on whether its skills system can support higher-value investment in semiconductors, digital services, and advanced manufacturing. From semiconductors to digital services, skills availability is fast becoming the decisive factor shaping investment decisions, productivity gains, and social resilience.

Dr. Nguyen Hoang Ha

As Vietnam sharpens its development strategy for the period beyond 2026, I see policymakers and investors converging on a critical constraint to sustained growth: the availability of high-technology human resources. While economic growth remains solid and macroeconomic fundamentals stable, the country’s next phase of development will depend less on labour costs and more on whether Vietnam can supply engineers, digital professionals, technicians, and technology-capable managers to support higher value-added investment.

As Vietnam enters a more demanding stage of development, the central question is no longer how fast the economy can expand, but how well growth can be sustained in an environment increasingly shaped by technology, innovation, and skills.

In this context, high-tech human resources – ranging from engineers and digital professionals to applied researchers, technicians, and technology-oriented managers – are emerging as a decisive factor in Vietnam’s long-term competitiveness. These skills form the critical link between capital, tech, and productivity, and will determine whether Vietnam can move decisively up the value chain.

For more than two decades, Vietnam’s development success was closely associated with an abundant, young workforce and competitive labour costs. This advantage enabled the country to integrate rapidly into global supply chains and become a preferred destination for manufacturing investment. By the mid-2020s, however, the limitations of this growth model have become increasingly evident.

Fewer than one-third of Vietnam’s workforce holds formal vocational or professional qualifications, and skills gaps remain particularly acute in advanced manufacturing, digital services, and technology-intensive industries. While participation in technical and vocational education has increased in recent years, training outcomes have not yet fully kept pace with the evolving skill requirements of enterprises operating automated, data-driven, and digitally integrated production systems.

For investors moving towards higher value-added activities, this mismatch between labour availability and skills readiness is becoming a more binding constraint than labour supply itself.

High-tech skills as a priority

From 2026 onwards, Vietnam will no longer compete primarily on labour costs. Instead, it is entering an increasingly intense regional and global competition for skilled talent.

Against this backdrop, Vietnam’s policy framework has begun to evolve in a more coordinated direction – an evolution that I believe is both necessary and overdue.

This shift is reflected in Vietnam’s highest-level policy framework. Resolution No.57-NQ/TW identifies science, technology, innovation, and national digital transformation as drivers of development, while emphasising high-quality workers as a decisive force in modernising production capacity.

Importantly, the resolution reframes human capital not solely as a social policy concern, but as a core productive resource essential for upgrading growth, improving productivity, and strengthening national competitiveness. This strategic direction has been operationalised through Resolution No.03/NQ-CP, which assigns responsibilities to ministries and local authorities to better align education, training, labour, and innovation policies with national development priorities.

Taken together, these resolutions send a clear signal to domestic and foreign investors: Vietnam’s skills agenda is becoming more strategic, coordinated, and politically anchored – a shift that strengthens confidence in the country’s long-term development direction.

High-tech human resources function as a powerful multiplier. Where relevant skills are available, capital investment is more likely to generate productivity gains, innovation, and technology spillovers. Where skills are scarce, investment tends to remain concentrated in assembly and low value-added activities.

Vietnam’s ambitions in semiconductors, AI, digital services, and high-tech healthcare highlight this dynamic. It is particularly evident in the semiconductor sector, where Vietnam has articulated an increasingly explicit strategy to move beyond assembly and testing towards more sophisticated functions within global value chains. Recent policy directions place strong emphasis on developing a pipeline of engineers, designers, and highly skilled technicians capable of supporting semiconductor manufacturing, design, and related digital industries through 2030 and beyond.

These ambitions underline a growing recognition that success in semiconductors depends not only on infrastructure and incentives, but fundamentally on the depth, quality, and adaptability of high-technology human resources.

Encouragingly, early progress is visible. Industry–university partnerships in electronics and semiconductor training, enterprise-influenced curricula, and a stronger emphasis on STEM and digital skills suggest a shift away from quantity-based training towards capability-driven workforce development. This transition is essential if Vietnam is to attract not only manufacturing projects, but also research and development centres, design and testing facilities, and regional headquarters, where value added and long-term investor commitment are significantly higher.

Alongside domestic workforce development, Vietnam’s high-technology transition increasingly raises questions of talent mobility and international skills circulation. As competition for engineers and digital professionals intensifies across the region, policies facilitating the attraction of foreign experts, the return of overseas Vietnamese professionals, and knowledge transfer through international collaboration can play a complementary role.

While domestic training remains the foundation of long-term skills sustainability, selective openness to global talent can accelerate capability building, strengthen enterprise competitiveness, and support the rapid scaling of high-tech industries during critical phases of development.

From my perspective, the availability of high-technology human resources is increasingly a determining factor not only in where investors choose to locate, but also in the scale and sophistication of the projects they are willing to pursue.

As automation and digitalisation accelerate, workers without opportunities to reskill face an increased risk of displacement into low-quality or informal employment. At the same time, demographic ageing is expected to place additional pressure on productivity and public services. In this context, lifelong learning and continuous upskilling are not social add-ons, but economic safeguards.

From ambition to quality

As Vietnam moves from strategy to large-scale implementation, international cooperation can play a complementary role by supporting the systems that enable skills development to respond effectively to labour market demand.

In practical terms, this includes strengthening skills governance and labour market information systems to help align training provision with emerging needs in priority sectors such as semiconductors and digital services. It also involves promoting enterprise-led and work-based learning models that encourage closer cooperation between firms, training institutions, and workers.

Equally important is embedding lifelong learning and inclusion within labour market institutions, ensuring that mid-career workers, women, and those in informal employment are not excluded as the economy upgrades. Well-functioning labour institutions and social dialogue can help ensure that Vietnam’s high-tech transition remains both competitive and socially sustainable – conditions that are important for long-term investors.

As Vietnam moves from strategy formulation to large-scale implementation, the credibility of its high-technology human resources agenda will increasingly be judged by outcomes visible to enterprises and investors on the ground.

I would argue that the decisive challenge after 2026 lies less in policy ambition and more in execution quality. Resolution 57 underscores that progress in science, technology, and innovation depends on effective coordination among institutions, enterprises, and the workforce, rather than on isolated initiatives.

Implementation success will be determined by how effectively policy objectives are translated into practice. This requires moving beyond formal coordination towards genuine partnerships between enterprises and training institutions, including co-designed curricula, expanded work-based learning, and skills standards that evolve alongside technological change. Public institutions, in turn, will need to shift from managing inputs to overseeing outcomes, ensuring that training investments deliver adaptable and employable workers.

A central role is assigned to enterprises. When firms are treated not merely as beneficiaries of incentives but as active contributors to skills development and innovation, investment is more likely to generate productivity gains and meaningful spillovers. International experience, as well as emerging domestic practice, suggests that such enterprise-centred approaches are essential for moving from assembly-based activities to higher value-added functions such as design, testing, and applied research.

Finally, extending skills development beyond new graduates to include mid-career workers, small firms, and those at risk of displacement will be critical. In an era of rapid technological change and demographic ageing, lifelong learning is a core condition for sustaining productivity, social stability, and long-term competitiveness.

*All views in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of the ILO

VIR