The event, jointly held by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) in coordination with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), builds on the Vietnam Finance Forum, which the ministry has organised annually since 2017.

Addressing the forum, which brought together more than 200 delegates, Deputy Minister of Finance Do Thanh Trung stressed that Vietnam is entering a new development phase with major strategic goals set amid a fast-changing environment.

Globally, economic and political volatility has intensified, particularly since April 2025, due to rising tariff tensions, geopolitical conflicts and security hotspots. This has heightened uncertainty and created multidimensional impacts on Vietnam. Domestically, 2024–2025 has seen the issuance of a series of strategic orientations and breakthrough policies by the Party and Government, laying the groundwork for fast and sustainable growth. Since July 2025, the administrative apparatus restructuring and territorial reorganisation has been carried out, creating new resources for development.

Vietnam faces an urgent development requirement: to become a developing country with modern industry and upper middle income by 2030, and a high-income developed country by 2045, he noted, emphasising that meeting these goals requires repositioning the country in the new context, mobilising resources more effectively, reforming the growth model, and expanding development space in a sustainable manner.

According to Trung, this year’s forum aimed to assess external opportunities and challenges, identify growth drivers and development room for a new growth model, and propose strategic steps and solutions in key economic areas for the 2026–2030 period.

He stressed the need to establish a new growth model based on total factor productivity, investment efficiency, and breakthroughs in science – technology and innovation. The model should harmonise traditional growth drivers—investment, exports and labour—with new ones such as the digital economy, green economy, knowledge-based economy and circular economy.

This transformation requires strong synergies across economic sectors. The State should play a facilitating and guiding role, focusing on strategic infrastructure and transparent legal frameworks. The private sector should act as an innovation engine, particularly in the digital economy, processing and manufacturing, and high-quality services. Meanwhile, FDI should be leveraged selectively to support next-generation technology transfer and international ESG standards. At the same time, Vietnam must tap new growth spaces from regions and localities and enhance the leading role of key economic zones.

These are not only requirements for reforming the growth model but also strategic directions for achieving the country’s 2030 and 2045 development targets.

Nguyen Nhu Quynh, Director of the MoF’s National Institute for Economics and Finance, noted that Vietnam is at a critical juncture – neither pessimistic nor overly optimistic. Growth remains structurally outdated, risks of falling behind persist, and the middle-income trap remains a concern. Major bottlenecks have yet to be effectively addressed.

He said Vietnam is facing in a complex context with more challenges than opportunities, while pursuing very ambitious goals.

It will be difficult to achieve new outcomes without new approaches. What is needed is new thinking, new leadership methods, a new growth model, and the unlocking of new resources and development space. A new development mindset must underpin all these efforts, Quynh stressed.

The forum comprised two sessions, focusing on strategic orientations for economic – financial development, and creating new drivers for growth./.