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Vietnam Still Lacks Strong Industrial Conglomerates to Compete Globally

Despite decades of aspirations to become a modern industrialized nation, Vietnam remains without powerful domestic conglomerates in heavy industry and high-tech manufacturing. At the High-Level Industrial Manufacturing Forum 2025, Dr. Nguyen Quan, former Minister of Science and Technology and Chairman of the Vietnam Automation Association, pointed out that these strategic sectors are still largely dominated by foreign-invested enterprises (FDI) and multinational corporations.

Vietnam first set the target of becoming an advanced industrial country by 2020, but by 2025 that goal remains unmet. “We continue to lack critical factors of industrialization—raw materials, skilled human resources, and strong industrial producers capable of anchoring global value chains,” Dr. Quan stated.

Although the country is not poor in natural resources, supply remains insufficient to support large-scale industrial development. Meanwhile, the shortage of high-quality engineers and workers for advanced technology industries poses a deeper challenge. Vietnamese firms, he noted, are still mainly engaged in support services rather than serving as core production hubs in global supply chains.

The Institutional Bottleneck

According to Dr. Quan, the central obstacle is institutional. While infrastructure and workforce limitations are pressing, governance remains the “bottleneck of bottlenecks.” Without fundamental reforms, Vietnam will struggle to nurture industrial giants.

Encouragingly, he observed, the past year has seen decisive moves by the Party and State, including digital transformation initiatives, administrative reform, and most notably, the adoption of four landmark resolutions by the Politburo. Among them, Resolution 57 on science, technology, and digital transformation, and Resolution 68 on private sector development stand out as “pillars of all pillars.”

Resolution 57 emphasizes risk tolerance, venture investment, and public funding mechanisms for R&D, with a target of raising national investment in science and technology to at least 2% of GDP. Resolution 68, for the first time, formally acknowledges the private sector as a primary driver of the economy—a fundamental shift from earlier decades when it was overlooked in key Party and State documents.

Building Domestic Industrial Champions

Currently, 98% of Vietnamese businesses are small and medium-sized enterprises. With Resolution 68, these firms are being given greater recognition and policy support. Dr. Quan stressed that fostering private sector development alongside state-owned enterprises will reshape Vietnam’s corporate landscape.

The government has also issued Decision 1131/QĐ-TTg (June 12, 2025), identifying strategic technologies and products as investment priorities, providing clearer direction for both state and private sector capital.

Still, Dr. Quan warned that unless Vietnam cultivates homegrown industrial conglomerates capable of producing strategic technologies, the dream of becoming an advanced industrial nation will remain out of reach. “Our challenge is to shift from being service-oriented participants in supply chains to becoming manufacturers of core technologies. Only then can Vietnam secure its position in the global economy,” he concluded.

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