Digital economy tops $72 billion as Resolution 57 drives transformation push

Digital economy tops $72 billion as Resolution 57 drives transformation push

Vietnam’s digital economy expanded to more than $72 billion in 2025, underscoring the early success of Resolution 57, even as slow fund disbursement and data integration hurdles continue to test implementation.

The Ministry of Finance recently released a comprehensive report on the implementation of Resolution No.57-NQ/TW during the first five months of 2026, along with key tasks for the rest of the year.

Issued in December 2024, Resolution 57 focuses on science and technology development and national digital transformation.

One of the most significant achievements has been the strong performance of the digital economy. In 2025, the digital economy had a share of GDP estimated at 14.02 per cent, equivalent to approximately $72.1 billion, a 1.64-fold increase compared with 2020.

The digital economy in 2025 was worth $72.1 billion

This growth has occurred both in breadth and depth. Core digital economy sectors accounted for 8.42 per cent of GDP, equivalent to around $43.3 billion, representing more than 60 per cent of the total value of the digital economy.

At the same time, the level of digitalisation across industries and sectors has continued to expand.

The digital economy also demonstrated superior growth momentum, expanding by 18.4 per cent at current prices and 11.8 per cent at constant prices in 2025. The effectiveness of the digital economy is further reflected in tax revenues generated from e-commerce activities.

Through the establishment of integrated management mechanisms and data-sharing arrangements with ministries and agencies, tax collections from organisations and individuals engaged in e-commerce reached nearly $8.35 billion in 2025, showing a sharp increase of 66.5 per cent.

During the first four months of 2026, collections continued to rise, reaching nearly $4.57 billion, up 9 per cent on-year.

At the local level, the digital economy has emerged as a differentiating factor in economic growth, with several localities reporting digital economy contributions exceeding 20 per cent of their regional GDP.

To create a supportive legal framework for the digital economy, institutional reforms have been implemented at an accelerated pace.

The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has completed a comprehensive overhaul of financial and state budget legislation, while issuing a series of regulatory guidelines to institutionalise the Party’s policies.

In public investment, full authority to approve investment policies and investment decisions has now been decentralised to ministries, sectors, and local authorities, except for nationally significant projects.

The elimination of capital notification procedures has shortened project approval and fund allocation timelines by as much as nine months.

In public procurement, new regulations grant investors greater autonomy in selecting procurement methods and expand the scope of special direct contracting.

As a result, overall procurement timelines have been shortened by 30 to 80 days, while the actual direct-contracting process now takes only three to seven days.

Notably, the highest levels of incentives for corporate income tax, personal income tax, import-export duties, and land-use fees have been introduced for digital enterprises and digital investment projects.

Regarding digital administrative reform, the MoF has issued five legal documents aimed at eliminating physical paperwork and replacing traditional applications with digital data.

The new regulations also recognise the legal validity of electronic administrative decisions automatically generated by digital systems.

These changes have enabled the Taxation and Customs sectors to transition from a management model based on manual declarations to a system driven by data, risk analysis, and electronic invoices.

As a result, 236 administrative procedures have been abolished and 556 procedures simplified, with estimated savings of more than $1.57 billion.

The 2026 state budget approved by the National Assembly ensures the minimum requirement of 3 per cent of total state budget expenditure for sci-tech, innovation, and digital transformation. This amounts to approximately $3.8 billion, meeting the requirements set out in Resolution 57.

Nevertheless, one of the major challenges remains fund disbursement. Although sufficient funding has been allocated, the detailed allocation process and actual disbursement rates have progressed slowly.

To date, agencies and organisations have completed detailed allocations totalling approximately $1.52 billion. Actual disbursements have reached $339.6 million, equivalent to 22.3 per cent of allocated funding and approximately 9 per cent of the total budget.

According to the report, one of the primary causes of delayed allocation and disbursement is the need for many large-scale digital transformation projects to review and revise their documentation to comply with centralised infrastructure requirements at the National Data Centre under the Ministry of Public Security. In addition, challenges persist in achieving real-time interoperable data sharing across agencies.

To address implementation delays and accelerate disbursement, the MoF has proposed several tasks.

Among them, the government is urged to issue criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of investments in sci-tech, innovation, and digital transformation projects to ensure they deliver economic breakthroughs.

The Ministry of Science and Technology should establish principles for allocating the remaining funding in a targeted manner, prioritising digital platforms and avoiding fragmentation of resources.

Relevant ministries, sectors, and local authorities must also urgently coordinate with the Ministry of Public Security to review digital transformation documentation, clearly defining the scope of implementation at the local level and integration with the National Data Centre, providing a basis for fund disbursement.

Government agencies are required to register their capital requirements promptly for the 2026-2030 public investment plan, which includes more than $108 billion in central government funding and more than $176.8 billion in local government funding. They must also prepare and consolidate the 2027 state budget estimates to ensure continuity in technology investment.

VIR