From vision to national results: Next-generation capabilities for Vietnam’s New Era

The sense of progress and confidence in Vietnam today is palpable. Now, after more than a year of bold policy and strategy initiatives and breakthrough investments in infrastructure, the Party Congress marks a key inflection point.

The Party Congress will be viewed historically as a key milestone. It will reaffirm Vietnam's national determination to transition to a new development model, through higher productivity, innovation, sustainability, and a better life for all. It will convey the message and the reality that Vietnam's key reform moment is now.

Yet Vietnam's next phase of development will be won or lost in coordination and implementation. Not because Vietnam lacks a compelling vision, but because the goals ahead require capable leadership and enhancing capabilities across the whole public governance system. Once again, coordination is key.

Productivity, the green transition, resilient infrastructure, stronger public services, better skills, and digital transformation each cuts across sectors. They demand coordination between ministries and provinces, between national policy and local delivery, between public institutions and enterprises, and between investment and people’s capabilities.

The question is simple: can Vietnam turn national priorities into consistent action and visible progress in workplaces, communities, and public services across the country?

Consider what 'productivity growth' looks like on the ground. It is a supplier in a manufacturing cluster that can meet quality standards reliably, not once but every time. It is a logistics chain that runs on time. It is a workforce that learns new techniques quickly. It is a system where support for upgrading links together training, standards, infrastructure, finance, and technology—so that domestic firms can move up, not get stuck.

Consider what 'sustainability' looks like in everyday life. It is reliable and affordable energy that supports industry while reducing pollution. It is cleaner air in cities. It is climate resilience in the Mekong Delta and coastal provinces, where livelihoods are increasingly exposed to heat, salinity, storms, and flooding. It is making the green transition a development opportunity—new industries, better jobs, safer communities—rather than an added burden.

Consider what 'leaving no one behind' looks like. It is a farmer, worker, or informal household that can access skills, services, and social protection when the economy changes. It is public services that reach people more fairly and efficiently. It is opportunity that spreads beyond a few sectors and a few localities.

These outcomes do not happen automatically. They depend on something less visible but decisive: next-generation capabilities inside key public organizations—stronger ways of working that help the system prioritize, coordinate, deliver, and learn.

Start with prioritization. When everything is a priority, coordination becomes diffuse and progress becomes hard to see. When a limited set of national priorities is made clear—sequenced and tied to specific outcomes—ministries and provinces can align their efforts, concentrate resources, and measure progress.

Then comes follow-through. Cross-cutting tasks succeed when responsibilities are clear, timelines are realistic, and leaders stay close to delivery. The most effective systems build a steady rhythm of implementation: regular reviews that focus on solving bottlenecks, making timely decisions, and keeping momentum. This is not about more reporting. It is about turning review into action.

Learning matters just as much. The fastest progress comes when reforms are designed to improve through practice. Pilot in a few places where conditions are ready, track results, refine the approach, and scale what works. Over time, this builds confidence and competence across the system.

Next-generation capability also means strong links between national direction and local realities. Provinces and cities are where much of the new development model will be delivered—industrial upgrading, energy efficiency, climate resilience, public services, and digital transformation. Strong delivery combines local initiative with clear national priorities, practical guidance, and transparent accountability.

Digital transformation and AI can accelerate all of this when they are applied to real problems that people and businesses feel every day: simpler administrative procedures, faster service delivery, better planning and monitoring, stronger transparency, and more effective targeting in social programs. Technology should raise efficiency and fairness together, strengthening trust and inclusion as Vietnam modernizes.

This is why, at this important reform moment, strategy and governance support is so valuable. UNDP is proud to be Vietnam's long-term partner in human development, and we will continue to work to support this agenda of next-generation capabilities.

We will do so in close collaboration with Vietnam's leading policy, strategy, and training institutions, and partners across central ministries as well as provinces and cities.

Our contribution is practical: supporting policy dialogue that connects ideas to decision processes; bringing evidence and experience that can be adapted to Vietnam's context; and helping design and test workable approaches that can be scaled—strengthening coordination, delivery, and learning in priority areas.

The XIV Party Congress will set a high bar, and it will also provide a powerful mandate. With stronger capabilities for execution—clear priorities, steady follow-through, and continuous learning—Vietnam can turn its 2030 and 2045 milestones into sustained gains in productivity, sustainability, and a more prosperous and just society for all.