Reporter: Dr. Chuc, as Vietnam's traditional growth drivers are gradually reaching their limits, what significance does expanding development space hold for the country's economy?

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Chuc: Recent studies indicate that the factors underpinning Vietnam's economic growth over the past decades are gradually losing both their effectiveness and growth potential. The country's traditional advantage of a young, abundant, and low-cost labor force is being eroded by population aging, modest improvements in labor productivity, rising wages, and an increasing shortage of highly skilled workers. Likewise, growth driven by the intensive exploitation of natural resources has largely reached its limits.

At the same time, the industrialization model based primarily on processing, assembly, and foreign direct investment (FDI) is increasingly showing its structural constraints. Domestic added value remains relatively low, linkages between FDI enterprises and domestic firms are still weak, while Vietnam's capacity to master advanced technologies and move into higher value-added segments of global supply chains remains limited. Export growth is also becoming more difficult to sustain amid sluggish global demand, intensifying international competition, and rising stringent technical and environmental standards in export markets.

In addition to transforming the growth model by placing greater emphasis on productivity, science and technology, innovation, and digital transformation, Vietnam must expand its development space in order to unlock new sources of growth and mobilize additional resources for sustainable development. Expanding development space should not be understood simply as enlarging administrative boundaries or redistributing economic activities geographically. Rather, it involves reorganizing, integrating, and maximizing the efficient use of both tangible and intangible resources within a defined geographical and institutional framework. By doing so, Vietnam can create new development opportunities, unlock untapped potential, and generate stronger, more sustainable drivers of economic growth.

Reporter: Dr. Chuc, how do you assess the importance of reorganizing and reallocating existing development spaces within the broader vision of expanding new development spaces?

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Chuc: Identifying and harnessing new development spaces, as well as existing development spaces whose potential has not yet been fully realized, will undoubtedly create new opportunities for growth. Emerging dimensions of development - such as underground space, low-altitude airspace, and digital space - are generating fresh momentum for research, technological application, and the creation of new products and business models that respond to both production and consumption needs of enterprises and citizens.

At the same time, for development spaces that have already been deployed, such as territorial and economic spaces, reorganizing and allocating them more efficiently in conjunction with the expansion of new development spaces will enable regions, localities, industries, and sectors to capitalize more effectively on their comparative advantages. This, in turn, will facilitate their deeper integration into global supply chains.

Furthermore, reorganizing, connecting, and optimizing these development spaces will contribute to the emergence of new growth poles and economic corridors. Currently, the Red River Delta and the Southeast Region serve as the principal engines of Vietnam's economic growth. However, the development potential of these two regions is gradually shrinking as the carrying capacity of infrastructure, resources, and development space is approaching its limit, leading to increasingly high costs of investment, operation, and economic expansion.

For this reason, it is essential to establish new economic spaces, growth poles, and economic corridors in order to spread development more evenly and alleviate the excessive concentration of growth in these two regions. With the restructuring of Vietnam's socio-economic regions, the expansion of intra-provincial development space following the three-level government reform, the country now has a clearer framework for the development of major metropolitan regions, North–South and East–West economic corridors, border-gate economic zones, the marine economy, coastal economic corridors, and logistics hubs. These developments represent a fundamental component for expanding development space based on existing foundations and constitute a powerful driver of Vietnam's long-term economic transformation.

Reporter: In the current context, how should we understand the relationship between institutional reform and the expansion of development space?

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Chuc: In my view, the expansion of development space creates additional room for institutional reform. In return, institutional innovation gives rise to new development spaces, including free trade zones, international financial centers, high-tech parks, and innovation districts.

Institutional space provides an environment in which new governance mechanisms, financing models, land management systems, and public–private partnership arrangements can be tested and refined. Once such institutional space is activated, we can hardly anticipate the range of innovations - in products, services, technologies, and business models - that may emerge. Institutional innovation therefore serves not only as a catalyst for new economic activities but also as an enabling platform for future waves of innovation and development.

Reporter: Vietnam aims to achieve rapid economic growth and sustainable development by 2030, with a vision toward 2045. In your opinion, which new economic spaces should be prioritized under current circumstances?

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Chuc: Development space is inherently multidimensional. Some dimensions have already been recognized and effectively utilized, while others have only recently emerged, are still being understood, or remain largely untapped.

To achieve Vietnam's ambitious goals of high-quality and sustainable growth, priority should be given to maximizing the efficiency of existing development spaces while simultaneously creating favorable conditions for the formation and effective utilization of new ones. Equally important is the coordination and integration of different development spaces so that they complement one another, expand the country's overall development capacity, and promote balanced, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth.

Reporter: In the current context, how should we understand the relationship between institutional innovation and the expansion of development space, Dr. Chuc?

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Chuc: I believe that the process of expanding development space creates greater room for institutional reform. Conversely, institutional innovation opens up new development spaces, such as free trade zones, international financial centers, high-tech parks, and innovation districts. Institutional space serves as a platform for experimenting with new governance mechanisms, capital mobilization models, land management approaches, and public–private partnerships. Once such institutional space is activated, it is impossible to fully anticipate the range of innovative products, services, business models, and other forms of innovation that may emerge.

Reporter: Vietnam is striving to achieve rapid economic growth and sustainable development by 2030, with a vision toward 2045. In your opinion, which new economic spaces should be prioritized under the current circumstances?

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Chuc: Development space is multidimensional. Some dimensions have already been explored and developed, while others have only recently been recognized, have just begun to emerge, or remain largely untapped. To achieve the country's goals of rapid and sustainable growth, our priority should be to maximize the efficiency of existing development spaces while creating favorable conditions for the emergence and effective development of new ones. Equally important is coordinating and connecting these development spaces in a harmonious manner so as to expand the country's overall development potential.

With a clear vision toward 2030 and 2045, I believe the following new development spaces should be given priority:

- The Digital Economy and Artificial Intelligence Space

This should be regarded as the foundational development space and a new productive force of the economy. It enables more effective coordination, introduces new production inputs, and transforms management and business practices. It is also a highly enabling space that supports the development of other economic spaces while providing the foundation for reorganizing, integrating, and optimizing the entire development ecosystem.

In the coming years, priorities within this space should include the digitalization of production processes, corporate governance, and supply chains; the widespread adoption of cloud computing; and the development of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and digital platforms for businesses.

The Communist Party of Vietnam and the Government have recognized both the strategic importance and the foundational role of the digital economy and AI. Vietnam has adopted its Digital Transformation Strategy for the 2026–2030 period, which aims to establish data- and AI-driven national governance while increasing the digital economy's contribution to 30 percent of GDP by 2030.

- The Data Economy Space

Data is increasingly recognized as a new factor of production -the "oil of the future" -alongside land, labor, and capital. Vietnam is rapidly building comprehensive databases covering the entire economy, and this effort is being accelerated nationwide.

At the same time, it is essential to establish a well-regulated data market, develop modern data centers, promote public–private data-sharing mechanisms, standardize and interconnect national databases, and ensure data privacy, security, and sovereignty. More importantly, efforts should focus on transforming data into “actionable” insights that improve governance, enhance market forecasting, optimize production processes, and create innovative products and services.

- The Institutional Space for Innovation

The institutional innovation space provides the policy frameworks, governance models, regulatory mechanisms, and experimental environments necessary for new forms of economic activity to emerge and thrive. It acts as the catalyst that unlocks new economic spaces, enabling the creation of innovative products, services, and business models.

Vietnam should establish innovation corridors and innovation clusters that connect universities, research institutes, technology enterprises, investment funds, and manufacturing centers. As these institutional innovation spaces are developed and become fully operational, they will foster the core drivers of a new development model, generating momentum for both short-term economic growth and long-term sustainable development.

Reporter: Thank you very much, Dr. Chuc, for sharing your insights with us.

Sources:  Nhan Dan Newspaper