Foreign direct investment has been central to Viet Nam’s remarkable economic transformation. Since the 1980s, FDI has increased substantially, supporting industrialisation, integration in global value chains, and employment. Challenges remain in ensuring that FDI benefits are broadly shared across the economy and society. Amid recent trade tensions, the next phase of Viet Nam’s FDI strategy will need to focus on attracting multinationals that deepen local value creation and technology transfer. Cross-cutting reforms are needed to raise productivity, support innovation, and develop the workforce to enable successful green and digital transitions.
FDI Qualities Review of Viet Nam
Powering the Next Growth Phase
Abstract
Strengthen governance and co-ordination through clearer mandates and cross-ministerial taskforces
Strengthen strategic policy coherence and inter-ministerial co-ordination. Establish formal co-ordination mechanisms across ministries involved in investment, innovation, and SME policy to reduce duplication and ensure coherent implementation. Clear division of responsibilities, backed by shared monitoring frameworks, would help align FDI attraction with Viet Nam’s productivity, digital, and green goals.
Consider the potential benefits of further clarifying the separation between regulatory (state management) and promotion functions within the investment framework. This may consist of retaining policy oversight in the Ministry of Finance while strengthening the autonomy and investor orientation of the investment promotion agency, supported by an appropriate supervisory board, thereby helping Viet Nam align with international practices.
Modernise regulatory frameworks, easing restrictions in high-skill services, enforcing IPR, strengthening labour rights, and improving environmental standards
Consider easing FDI and product market barriers in sectors that advance productive and inclusive growth. Foreign ownership limits and licensing constraints in high-value sectors such as telecommunications, finance, and digital services can imped innovation-driven investment that creates quality jobs, including for women and outside of urban hubs. A targeted reform roadmap would signal Viet Nam’s commitment to an open, competitive economy.
Strengthen implementation of Intellectual Property Rights and digital regulations. Enhance enforcement capacity and institutional co-ordination for intellectual property protection to foster technology transfer and innovation. Streamline and clarify rules governing data localisation, cybersecurity, and digital services to reduce compliance burdens for investors.
Deepen labour, skill, and gender reforms to sustain the employment benefits of FDI. Continue strengthening collective bargaining rights, reducing informality, and improving enforcement of labour standards to ensure FDI contributes to decent work. Integrate FDI trends in skills anticipation systems to help align training with enterprise needs, particularly in digital, semiconductor, and green sectors. Integrate gender considerations into investment and labour policies to promote women’s leadership and participation in high-value industries.
Strengthen green investment regulations to meet net-zero ambitions. Accelerate and enhance the implementation of environmental impact assessments and improve transparency in renewable energy licensing. Introduce predictable and competitive green investment frameworks, including renewable auctions and improved risk allocation in power purchase agreements.
Strengthen the implementation and awareness of responsible business conduct (RBC) policies. Build on the National Action Plan for Law and Policy Improvement to Promote Responsible Business Practices to align Viet Nam’s framework with international standards. This can be done by raising awareness among firms and policymakers, integrating RBC principles into public procurement and SOE operations, and strengthening enforcement. Improved environmental disclosure, stricter penalties for violations, and full implementation of the revised Labour Code would reinforce accountability and sustainable business practices.
Rebalance incentives and support, shifting from income- to expenditure-based incentives for R&D, skills, and green innovation
Align incentives with productivity, skills, innovation and inclusion goals. Shift from income-based to expenditure-based tax incentives to encourage R&D, training, and green investments, while considering phasing-out benefits in high-polluting sectors. Improve transparency of incentives to support greater take-up and conduct regular evaluations to ensure tax incentives deliver measurable outcomes.
Strengthen technical support to build linkages and align skills, gender, and green capabilities with investment. Co-design supplier development programmes with MNEs and expand advisory services to help Vietnamese firms meet international standards. Promote partnerships between foreign firms, universities, and training bodies to ensure skills development programmes meet industry needs.
Enhance investment promotion and transparency, focusing on high-quality FDI and reducing information asymmetries through digital disclosure tools
Strengthen investment promotion to align with Viet Nam’s strategic goals. Adopt a data-driven approach to target investors with high spillover potential and enhance FIA’s capacity for proactive promotion and investor targeting. Promoting expansion to existing investors in higher-value-added activities such as R&D can be cost-effective.
Streamline investment facilitation to improve the investor experience. Consider developing a fully integrated one-stop digital portal that allows for online applications, payment, and tracking, supported by responsive FIA aftercare services. Consistent procedures across provinces would reduce administrative barriers and improve transparency. Joining the WTO initiative on Investment Facilitation can signal commitment to the facilitation actions undertaken.
Enhance accountability, data, and co-ordination to align FDI with national priorities. Introduce a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation framework with clear KPIs on FDI’s contribution to development outcomes. Strengthen data sharing among the National Statistical Office, ministries and subnational agencies to enable evidence-based policymaking.
Viet Nam was one of the countries with the lowest income levels in the world in 1985. The Doi Moi reforms of 1986 laid the foundation for rapid growth, reducing the dominance of the public sector and transforming Viet Nam from a closed, centrally planned agrarian economy to a major exporter. At the centre of this transformation lies foreign direct investment (FDI), which has supported industrialisation, generated millions of jobs, and integrated Viet Nam into global value chains (GVCs) (OECD, 2018[1]; OECD, 2025[2]). FDI has therefore become a key enabler of Viet Nam’s long-term development targets. High ambitions for the future include a double-digit growth for 2026-2030, with the aim of reaching high-income status by 2045, while transitioning to net-zero and a digital economy. These goals require faster productivity gains and adequate skill basis for FDI to power Viet Nam’s next growth phase that benefits all Vietnamese.
1.1.1. Sustained economic progress will require new drivers of productivity
In the last three decades, Viet Nam has experienced remarkable economic progress, its GDP per capita has increased steadily, supported by rapid output growth. Although annual GDP growth has been volatile, with marked slowdowns during the Asian Financial Crisis, the Global Financial Crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic, each downturn was followed by a strong rebound (Figure 1.1, Panel A). The sharp contraction in 2020-2021 and recovery in 2022 highlights Viet Nam’s resilience and capacity to adapt, underpinned by an export-oriented model and increasing integration into global value chains (GVCs). Productivity growth averaged 4.5% annually between 2000 and 2023 among the highest in ASEAN countries (OECD, 2025[2]). Looking ahead, several past sources of growth – such as high labour utilisation – are expected to diminish, underscoring the need for new drivers of productivity.
Viet Nam’s rapid economic expansion has delivered large benefits to a broad share of the population. A middle class is emerging, income inequality has declined, and extreme poverty has been almost eradicated. Despite low unemployment and comparatively high female participation, informality remains pervasive (Figure 1.1, Panel B), with two-thirds of workers lacking access to social protection benefits. Recent reforms to enhance access to pensions and health care will help address this gap and should be implemented. Further reducing the tax burden on labour income would also support formalisation and help mitigate the pervasive effects of informality on wages and career pathways (OECD, 2025[2]). In addition, educational attainment at the upper secondary and short-cycle tertiary levels is still limited, particularly for women, and few informal workers have qualifications with recognised certification, which could constrain the development of a highly skilled workforce (Figure 1.1, Panel B).
Note: Most indicators refer to 2023 and 2024. For some series, the most recent available data are from earlier years between 2020 and 2022. Source: OECD based on the World Bank’s World Development Indicators.
Viet Nam is highly exposed to the effects of climate change while challenges related to the digital transformation persist. The population is exposed to risks of flooding, heat waves, and extreme weather events. Ambitious climate mitigation policies have been introduced, including incentives for solar and wind power, and a commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 (OECD, 2025[2]). Viet Nam’s energy sector is predominantly fossil-fuelled, carbon intensity and poor air quality are high compared to the average for ASEAN and OECD countries (Figure 1.1, Panel B). Digital challenges persist, as internet adoption remains limited, albeit comparable to other ASEAN economies, highlighting the need to strengthen digital access.
1.1.2. Viet Nam has made impressive strides towards a more open investment regime
Openness to trade and investment, including joining the World Trade Organization in 2007, has been central to Viet Nam’s success (OECD, 2018[1]). Foreign investment has helped to drive this growth, pushing the trade-to-GDP ratio to almost 200%, one of the highest in the world. The steady rise of FDI stock has gone hand in hand with rapid export expansion, underscoring the role of foreign investment in Viet Nam’s integration into GVCs (Figure 1.2, Panel A). Viet Nam has been able to sustain high inflows of FDI over the past decade at a time when global FDI flows have fallen relative to GDP (Figure 1.2, Panel B). Cumulative inflows of FDI from 2010 to 2024 place Viet Nam in third place in Southeast Asia, ahead of Thailand and Malaysia. Although FDI inflows as share of GDP are stagnating, they are still at high levels compared to the rest of the world, and Viet Nam has been capturing an increased share of the FDI going to ASEAN, except in recent years (Figure 1.2, Panel B).
Source: OECD based on World Bank and UNCTAD statistics (Panel A) and World Bank and Asean Statistics (Panel B).
The search for supply chain resilience and increased margins have encouraged MNEs to diversify manufacturing away from China. Viet Nam’s geographic proximity, competitive labour costs, expanding network of free trade agreements, and improving infrastructure have made it one of the primary destinations for these relocations, particularly in electronics, machinery, and consumer goods. However, this reallocation also reveals structural challenges: investment remains concentrated in assembly and lower value-added segments of GVCs, limiting the scope for domestic spillovers and technology transfer. Furthermore, this shift faces headwinds with the recent U.S. tariffs on Vietnamese exports, raising the risk that some export-driven FDI will become less attractive unless firms embed more value creation locally.
Viet Nam owes its success to ambitious and incremental reforms over decades that contrasts positively with other countries at a similar level of development. Viet Nam initially had separate laws for foreign and domestic investment, as in many other countries, but these were merged in 2005 and subsequently modified to improve transparency and openness of the investment regime (OECD, 2018[1]). Viet Nam has matched these domestic reforms with an equally ambitious international agenda that includes ASEAN-wide agreements, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership and a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union. The extent and timing of these reforms and international engagements are reflected in the remarkable evolution of Viet Nam from a closed economy before the 1986 market reforms to a gradually open economy (Figure 1.3). Barriers to FDI are still higher than in OECD countries, with restrictions in knowledge-intensive services such as telecommunications and finance, where opportunities for technology transfer are high.
Note: The FDIRRI captures FDI restrictions across four policy categories: i) foreign equity limits; ii) screening and approval of foreign investment; iii) restrictions on key foreign personnel; and iv) other operational restrictions. Caution is needed when interpreting the trend before and after 2018 due to the adjustments in methodology, which adjusted sectoral weights to correct for the overrepresentation of smaller sectors, such as fisheries, electricity, media, but in turn give more prominence to larger sectors like real estate in the new scoring framework.
Source: OECD FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index 2023; and the former OECD FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index 1997-2020 (archived).
While regulatory barriers to FDI are lower than in most ASEAN member countries, foreign investors in Viet Nam face high barriers to competition. According to OECD Product Market Regulation (PMR) indicators, “distortions induced by state involvement” are high (OECD, 2025[2]). State-Owned Enterprises account for one-third of GDP and are prevalent in network sectors. Increasing their efficiency and levelling the playing field with the private sector will help improve the overall climate for domestic and foreign companies (OECD, 2023[3]). Other barriers include complex and time-consuming administrative procedures, a lack of regulatory transparency, and inconsistent application of rules across provinces. Foreign investors often face difficulties accessing clear and timely information on investment procedures, licenses, and legal requirements. Strengthening investment facilitation remains key to improving the investment climate and levelling the playing field for foreign investors. Joining the WTO initiative on Investment Facilitation could signal Viet Nam’s commitment to facilitation actions it is already undertaking.
In December 2025, Viet Nam adopted a new Law on Investment to further simplify the business environment by narrowing the scope of projects requiring prior approval and encouraging investment in priority areas such as high technology, digital sectors, and innovation-led activities. The law introduces a key procedural reform allowing foreign investors to establish an entity before obtaining a registration certificate, shortening establishment timelines and lowering entry barriers. It also simplifies outbound investment procedures, reflecting a stronger commitment to transparency, openness, and competitiveness in the investment regime. Full impact of the reform will depend on effective implementation, including timely secondary regulations, strong administrative capacity, and transparent decision-making. Ensuring coherence with sectoral policies and incentive frameworks will be key to translating these procedural improvements into stronger technology transfer and value creation.
Beyond the new investment law, Viet Nam enacted major reforms and comprehensive set of landmark resolutions aimed at elevating the private sector, fostering innovation, and accelerating digital and green transformation (Table 1.1). Politburo’s Resolution 68-NQ/TW of May 2025 redefined the private sector as the leading driver of growth, setting ambitious targets for enterprise creation, productivity growth, and integration into GVCs. The National Assembly passed Resolution 198/2025/QH15, introducing new incentives – especially for startups, R&D, and innovative SMEs – while the Government of Viet Nam’s Resolution 139/NQ-CP of May 2025 operationalised these reforms by streamlining administrative procedures and supporting green finance. Complementing these, Politburo’s Resolution 57-NQ/TW of December 2024 foregrounded science, technology, and digital transformation as national priorities with clear R&D, human capital, and digital economy goals. Together, these reforms articulate a coherent policy framework and unified strategy to unleash private-sector dynamism, including through foreign investment, foster technological innovation, and embed digital transformation in Viet Nam’s economic development.
Source: OECD based on various government sources.
Realising Viet Nam’s ambitious economic goals requires not just attracting foreign investment but ensuring that it generates positive spillovers in areas such as productivity, innovation, skills, gender equality, and environmental sustainability (OECD, 2022[4]). Foreign companies have accelerated industrialisation, poverty reduction and job creation. At the same time, challenges remain in ensuring that FDI supports productivity enhancements and that benefits are broadly shared across the Vietnamese economy and society. Amid recent tariff hikes that risk discouraging export-oriented MNEs, the next phase of Viet Nam’s FDI strategy will need to focus on attracting MNEs that deepen local value creation and technology transfer.
1.2.1. Foreign firms’ characteristics in Viet Nam: Rapid wage and labour growth, modest revenue gains
Foreign firms play an outsized role in Viet Nam’s economy, and significantly more than in other countries. They represented less than 3% of all formal companies – both public and private – between 2006 and 2023, yet generated around 30% of the revenues, wages, and formal employment (Figure 1.4, Panel A, B, D). This partly owes to their average size of around 250 employees – 10 to 15 times larger than Vietnamese firms’ size. Foreign firms’ contribution to female employment is especially pronounced, hiring around four out of ten women, consistent with their concentration in export-oriented, labour-intensive manufacturing that draws heavily on female labour (Panel C and E) (OECD, 2022[4]). Their footprint on services is limited, generating only 20% of foreign firms’ revenues. Regionally, only 20% of foreign activity is outside the two major urban hubs of the Red River Delta (Ha Noi) and the Southeast (Ho Chi Minh City) (Panel F). In OECD countries, foreign firms accounted for 21% of private sector employment.
Note: Domestic firms include State owned enterprise (over 50% state owned capital), non-state enterprise (private, limited Co., joint stock Co.), and co-operatives. Revenues, employment, female employment, the wage bill are aggregated over 2006 and 2023.
Source: OECD based on latest available year from the National Statistics Office (NSO) enterprise data.
The footprint of foreign firms in Viet Nam expanded significantly, albeit unevenly across various economic dimensions, over the past two decades. Wages and employment grew faster in foreign relative to Vietnamese firms, but revenues rose more modestly, pointing to rising labour costs and thin-margin revenues (Figure 1.5, Panel A). Although they remain low among ASEAN peers, real wages grew strongly among foreign manufacturers, which employed nine out of 10 workers in a foreign firm in 2023 (Table 1.2) (OECD, 2025[2]). In services, foreign firms’ relative revenues barely grew, while employment and especially wages rose sharply, reinforcing the picture of foreign activity being driven more by labour and wage dynamics than by revenue gains (Figure 1.5, Panel B). The foreign-to-domestic wage ratios climbed steeply compared to revenues in ICT, professional services, finance, and education.
Foreign-domestic ratios of revenues, wages, and employment (2006=100)
Note: variables were calculated as the ratio of foreign to domestic firms’ totals for revenues, wages, and employment. Each ratio was then normalised to its 2006 value (2006=100) to show relative growth over time.
Source: OECD based on latest available year from the National Statistics Office (NSO) enterprise data.
Manufacturing in percent of total, by ownership, 2023
Source: OECD based on latest available year from the National Statistics Office (NSO) enterprise data.
1.2.2. Thin-margin FDI is no longer enough to fuel the next productivity boom
Viet Nam’s FDI model, centred on low value-added manufacturing exports, may have reached its limits in sustaining incomes and productivity. Foreign firms have consistently outperformed Vietnamese peers within most sectors in terms of revenues per worker and wages (Figure 1.6, Panel A). In mining, energy, utilities, and construction, the productivity gap is large, reflecting capital-intensive operations, while the wage gap is smaller, suggesting limited wage pass-through.1 Foreign firms’ productivity advantage also translates into higher wages in labour- or skill-intensive sectors such education, professional, scientific, and technical activities, retail, finance, and manufacturing. Nonetheless, heavy concentration in lower-productivity, lower-wage assembly industries drag down foreign firms’ aggregate performance. In 2023, they were on average about 18% less productive than domestic firms, while paying wages around 21% higher (Figure 1.6, Panel B). The wage gap is modest compared to other countries, however, and job quality remains constrained by limited training, long working hours, and high informality in supply chains.
Note: Labour productivity is calculated as revenues divided by total employment.
Source: OECD based on latest available year from the National Statistics Office (NSO) enterprise data.
The negative labour productivity foreign-domestic gap emerges not because foreign firms underperform in manufacturing – they are slightly more productive in this sector – but due to their under-representation in more productive sectors where Vietnamese firms prevail. Excluding manufacturing, foreign firms were 15% more productive and paid nearly twice as much in wages in 2023 (Figure 1.6, Panel C). This aggregate performance by foreign firms highlights a composition challenge (the distribution of FDI across sectors), not necessarily efficiency weaknesses. It does not imply their performance is weaker in the same sector – foreign firms outperform Vietnamese peers in nearly all sectors. Calculated performance gaps, based on firm-level data produced by Viet Nam’s National Statistics Office, could also suffer from data limitations. Informal employment in Vietnamese firms may be potentially higher and, in turn, their aggregate labour productivity lower. Other sources such as the World Bank Enterprise Survey suggest that foreign firms are, on aggregate, three times more productive that Vietnamese firms (see Chapter 2).
Foreign firms’ higher wage performance relative to productivity reflects both structure and behaviour. They are concentrated in activities with high labour costs relative to revenues, unlike capital-intensive, domestic-dominated sectors (utilities, extractives) where wages are a smaller fraction of revenues. Consequently, the aggregate labour share is pushed up for foreign firms. Their heavy reliance on imported inputs – many foreign exporters import foreign components – further inflates revenues without adding much local value, while the entire wage bill is recorded in Viet Nam. However, even within the same sectors, foreign firms tend to have higher labour costs, due to higher shares of formal employment, social insurance, and compliance with international buyers (Figure 1.6, Panel A) (OECD, 2022[4]). These pressures have increased over time, alongside successive minimum wage hikes and strengthened labour standards.
Viet Nam’s specialisation pattern has persisted as FDI has continued to flow disproportionately into labour-intensive export industries over the past two decades, locking in a model that delivers jobs but create little value-added. Similar experiences in Tunisia – or Malaysia and Thailand in earlier development stages – show that while FDI-led manufacturing exports drives growth and jobs, including for women, limited local value-added constrains productivity gains (OECD, 2024[5]). For Viet Nam, this underscores the urgency of upgrading – and implementing – FDI-related strategies towards higher-value-added manufacturing, services, and innovation. Viet Nam’s comprehensive private sector resolutions in 2025 to foster innovation are an important step in that direction. This includes the ICT sector, where foreign firms pay higher wages, potentially employing more skilled labour, but generate lower revenues per employee.
1.2.3. Foreign firms’ limited R&D and high import reliance constrain technology transfer
Foreign firms are technologically more advanced and innovative than Vietnamese firms, but export-led manufacturing FDI has offered limited opportunities for knowledge spillovers and technology transfers (Figure 1.7, Panel A). The share of high-tech exports in total manufacturing exports (44%) was more than twice the OECD average (21%) in 2023. This reflects the strong role of foreign firms in the electronics sector; these firms accounted for around 93% of the sector’s total output (Trinh et al., 2026[6]). However, foreigners strongly rely on imported inputs for assembly-based manufacturing, instead of involving Vietnamese SMEs in global supplier networks. Local sourcing was highest in agrifood and financial services but, overall, accounted for just 60% of total input use by foreign firms in 2016-2020, among which 21% was from other foreign firms, a higher share than in other countries (Figure 1.7, Panel B).
Source: Panel A: World Bank Enterprise Survey (Viet Nam: 2023); Panel B: OECD Analytical Activity of MNEs Database (AAMNE), 2019.
Vietnamese SMEs struggle to meet international standards and face financing constraints to upgrade their capabilities (OECD, 2025[2]). Support mechanisms – such as the SME Development Fund and the National Technology Innovation Fund – provide assistance to upgrade suppliers’ capabilities, but fall short from closing the skill gap and creating strong linkages between foreign and domestic firms. While Thailand and Malaysia have developed targeted supplier development programmes that facilitate co-production and technology partnerships, supplier linkages in Viet Nam are concentrated in low-value input provision. This is due to the lack of uptake of financial support, limited co-ordination between financial and technical assistance as well as concentration of support in industrial hubs, leaving SMEs in lagging provinces with few opportunities to connect with foreign investors. Provincial investment promotion agencies and SME assistance centres are central actors, but limited co-ordination with national agencies often results in duplicated procedures and weak connections between MNEs and local firms.
The limited performance of Vietnamese SMEs is not the only barrier to FDI technology transfer. Foreign firms in Viet Nam spend relatively little on R&D, unlike their peers in other countries (Figure 1.7 Panel A), due to their concentration in assembly-based manufacturing. Greenfield FDI in R&D increased over the past two decades but remains at just 1.9% of capital expenditure over 2020-2024 relative to 3.7% in the OECD and 2.5% in ASEAN. It was highest in healthcare, industrial equipment, software and IT services, and semiconductors. Overall, public spending on R&D remains low at 0.4% of GDP compared to 1.2% in Thailand and 4.9% in Korea, leaving few opportunities for deeper innovation spillovers. Weak, albeit improving, enforcement of intellectual property rights further discourages foreign firms from sharing technology. At the same time, the institutional framework for investment and innovation is fragmented: the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade – and their respective implementing agencies – all shape policy in this area, but co-ordination is weak.
1.2.4. Viet Nam’s green and digital transition is an opportunity to better reap the benefits of FDI
Investment has become instrumental in advancing Viet Nam’s green and digital transformation goals, offering an opportunity to re-think how it can better serve broader productivity and innovation goals. Half of greenfield FDI between 2020 and 2025 was in digital or green sectors – with a peak of 90% of all investments in 2022, twice more than over 2015-2019 (Figure 1.8). Along with this rapid industry restructuring, the same amount of FDI that Viet Nam receives may create fewer jobs in the future as sectors attracting massive investments such as renewables or semi-conductors have moderate job creation intensities. While this shift signals a reallocation of labour to where it is needed, swift policy action, including preparing the workforce to emerging skills in demand, will ensure FDI benefits both people and the planet.
Note: variables are expressed as a three-year moving average over 2003-2025. FDI in digital includes digital services (e.g. computer programming activities; data processing and hosting activities; information services activities, etc.); ICT goods (electronics, computer equipment, etc.); electrical components (batteries, electrical equipment, wiring devices, etc.); and telecommunications (wired and wireless telecommunications activities and satellite activities).
Source: OECD based on fDi Markets database and OECD (2025), FDI Qualities Indicators Visualisation Platform. Available at: https://www.oecd.org/en/data/dashboards/fdi-qualities-indicators-visualisation-platform.html.
Foreign investors have been central to Viet Nam’s renewable energy surge: solar and wind expanded from under 1% of installed capacity in 2017 to 28% in 2023, largely driven by feed-in-tariff incentives. The share of renewables in greenfield FDI doubled between 2014–18 and 2019-2023 (from 7.6% to 14.7%), though it remains below both fossil fuels (23% in 2019-2023) and the OECD average (24%). Manufacturing, often carbon-intensive, accounts for 60% of total FDI, raising concerns about “carbon lock-in” if investment continues to favour polluting industries. Foreign firms outperform domestic ones on environmental practices – being twice as likely to monitor emissions and adopt energy management systems – yet spillovers are limited by low energy prices, weak financing, and limited awareness among local firms. Meeting Viet Nam’s net-zero 2050 target, which requires up to USD 658 billion in investment, as reaffirmed through recent legislative and regulatory updates, will demand more FDI in renewables, improved environmental standards among domestic firms, and reconsidering incentives for fossil fuel projects. Overlapping green strategies, weak co-ordination, and frequent policy changes in renewable support schemes currently undermine investor confidence. Stronger facilitation, streamlined permitting, and grid upgrades will be essential to attract and retain green FDI.
Digital FDI is rising sharply, playing a leading role in e-commerce, digital payments, and software services, often introducing cutting-edge practices, yet its contribution is constrained by several structural barriers. Investment remains heavily concentrated in hardware manufacturing, while FDI in telecommunications and digital services – crucial for higher value-added activities – lags behind regional peers due to restrictive market access, ownership caps, and weak competition. Overlapping institutional mandates and limited co-ordination across ministries, alongside regulatory uncertainty in data governance and weak enforcement of intellectual property rights, further undermine policy coherence and discourage technology transfer. At the same time, generous incentive regimes risk being undercut by unclear eligibility rules and weak monitoring, while SME digital adoption remains limited, preventing stronger linkages with foreign investors. Without more open digital services markets, clearer and more predictable regulations, and stronger domestic capabilities, Viet Nam may capture partial benefits from rapidly growing digital FDI.
1.2.5. Reaping the benefits of FDI requires better alignment across investment, skills and gender policies
Leveraging FDI to power Viet Nam’s next growth phase requires adjustments on the labour market. While FDI has contributed significantly to creating jobs, its impact on job quality and skills transfer and development remains limited. The reliance on low-skilled labour has created little incentive for both foreign firms and domestic suppliers to invest in workforce development, while it represents an important channel for knowledge diffusion. Only about 20% of foreign firms provide training – double the share of Vietnamese firms, but still insufficient to meet rising skills needs (Figure 1.9). Viet Nam has untapped potential to attract FDI in high-value, skill-intensive sectors, including digital, financial services, education, and healthcare. Regulatory restrictions on foreign ownership persist in key sectors such as telecommunications and financial services, which holds back the potential of FDI to support job quality and skills development.
Source: OECD based on World Bank Enterprise Surveys (Viet Nam: 2023).
While Viet Nam has made progress in integrating labour provisions into trade and investment agreements, updating labour and employment laws, and ratifying ILO conventions, barriers remain to ensuring FDI supports job quality and skills development. Worker organisations – key to giving workers a voice and addressing firm-level issues – have yet to materialise, pending regulatory guidance, and foreign investors still face obstacles in attracting skilled workers and facilitating the entry of foreign talent. Skills shortages in managerial, technical, and language areas are constraining investment in digital and green sectors, including at the technician and TVET level, where shortages are particularly acute for renewable energy, energy efficiency, and green manufacturing activities (GIZ, 2025[7]). Despite embedding skills development in national strategies, fragmented responsibilities and weak inter-agency co-ordination undermine implementation and labour market information systems. Limited linkages between businesses and educational establishments prevent effective alignment of training programmes with industry needs. Moreover, investment incentives remain tied largely to job creation rather than upgrading skills, with income-based tax breaks creating fiscal costs but limited impact on workforce capabilities, and transparency gaps reducing business take-up.
Viet Nam has one of the highest female labour participation rates in the world, and FDI has created significant employment opportunities for women, particularly in manufacturing and electronics. Foreign firms account for nearly half of women’s formal employment and tend to hire more women than domestic firms in most sectors. Yet, women remain underrepresented in leadership roles, with foreign firms half as likely to have a female top manager compared to domestic ones. Wages are also skewed: foreign firms pay much higher wages in male-dominated sectors like construction and mining, but the premium is smaller in sectors with higher female representation, such as garments. Geographic concentration of FDI in urban centres further limits opportunities for women in rural areas, while adding social costs to those who migrate to benefit from urban employment.
Despite a strong legal framework and high-level commitment to gender equality, barriers persist to translating FDI into more inclusive opportunities. Gender considerations are only partially integrated into investment and digital strategies, and co-ordination between investment and gender equality bodies is weak. Incentive schemes tied to gender equality are complex, limiting their reach, and non-compliance with gender equality provisions remains an issue. Social norms and disproportionate care responsibilities also continue to influence women’s education and career paths, keeping them underrepresented in knowledge-intensive and high-tech sectors. While Viet Nam’s trade agreements with the European Union and CPTPP contain gender provisions, these lack enforceability, underscoring the need for clearer and binding measures that align FDI attraction with women’s economic empowerment.
FDI has decisively contributed to Viet Nam’s development agenda, but the depth and inclusiveness of this contribution is limited by weak technology transfer and SME linkages, uneven skills upgrading, persistent gender gaps, and the dominance of low value-added and carbon-intensive activities. Institutional fragmentation, regulatory barriers in high-value sectors, reliance on income-based incentives, and insufficient investment facilitation further constrain FDI’s potential to deliver broad-based benefits. Leveraging recent landmark reforms (Table 1.1) and international experience offers an opportunity to build a more coherent policy framework, aligned with national priorities, to ensure that the next generation of FDI supports productivity, inclusiveness, and sustainability. This section summaries reform opportunities assessed in Chapters 2 to 6 to improve the institutional, regulatory, financial, and investment promotion framework for FDI based on the OECD FDI Qualities Recommendation and Policy Toolkit (Box 1.1).
The Recommendation on FDI Qualities is structured around the following key high-level policy principles/directions, drawn from the FDI Qualities Policy Toolkit:
1. Governance: Provide coherent strategic direction on fostering investment in support of sustainable development, and foster policy continuity and effective implementation of such policies.
2. Domestic policy and legal frameworks: Take steps to ensure that domestic policy and legal frameworks support positive impacts of investment on sustainable development.
3. Financial and technical support: Prioritise sustainable development objectives when providing financial and technical support to stimulate investment.
4. Information and facilitation services: Facilitate and promote investment for sustainable development opportunities by addressing information failures and administrative barriers.
5. Development co-operation: Strengthen the role of development co-operation for mobilising FDI and enhancing its positive impact in developing countries.
The FDI Qualities Policy Toolkit is also structured along these policy principles and provides detailed guidance to governments on enhancing the contribution of FDI to economic development. The Recommendation builds on other standards developed by the OECD in the area of international investment, including the Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises.
Source: OECD (2022[4]), FDI Qualities Policy Toolkit, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/7ba74100-en.
1.3.1. Strengthen governance and co-ordination through clearer mandates and cross-ministerial taskforces
Improve strategic policy coherence and inter-ministerial co-ordination
Viet Nam has developed a wide range of strategies that recognise the role of FDI in driving productivity, skills, gender equality, and green growth. These include the Strategy for Investment Cooperation (2021-2030), the National Innovation Strategy, the Climate Change Strategy (2022), the National Strategy on Gender Equality (2021-2030), and the Education Strategy set in Politburo’s Resolution 71-NQ/TW of 2025. However, these strategies often overlap and lack integration, leading to fragmented implementation. Institutions at both national and provincial levels play overlapping roles: the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the MOF is tasked with investment promotion across all sectors. MoF’s National Innovation Centre (NIC) promotes innovation ecosystems and partnerships with MNEs. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA) leads on labour and skills policy – the Ministry of Education and Training on Vocational and Higher Education, while the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MOAE) drives environmental policy. Provincial investment promotion agencies and SME assistance centres play a direct role in investment facilitation and supplier upgrading.
Viet Nam’s policy framework for investment in support of productivity, SME development, digital transformation, skills, gender equality, and green growth would benefit from stronger strategic alignment. Recent national strategies and visions have created a strong foundation, but their objectives need to be translated into concrete and actionable measures with clear institutional responsibilities. Strategies should be aligned on simplifying the regulatory framework, targeting knowledge-intensive FDI, integrating MNEs into the innovation ecosystem, and strengthening SME capacity to benefit from their presence. Skills development features across multiple national strategies but require strong co-ordination mechanisms to avoid fragmented efforts, while mainstreaming gender equality across investment, digital, and green strategies would ensure inclusiveness. Likewise, Viet Nam’s multiple green investment strategies should be streamlined into a coherent framework that sets out clear priorities and policy measures to mobilise private investment for green growth.
Achieving strategic alignment requires robust co-ordination mechanisms at both national and provincial levels. Clearer division of mandates and better resourcing of agencies are essential, supported by regular monitoring and evaluation. In the digital economy – and related Resolutions of the Politburo 57-NQ/TW and 68-NQ/TW and the Digital Economy Strategy – this means consolidating overlapping functions, creating working groups that bring together investment and innovation agencies, and publishing annual action plans with transparent reviews. In skills development, formal co-ordination between investment bodies, labour authorities, and education providers – alongside input from business associations and trade unions – would help align workforce planning with enterprise needs. Strengthening links between MoF and MoHA would allow gender considerations to be systematically integrated into investment policies, while structured public–private dialogue in green sectors would improve regulatory design and investor confidence. These mechanisms would reinforce policy coherence, reduce duplication, and ensure that FDI supports productivity, inclusiveness, and sustainability.
Further clarify the separation between regulatory (state management) and investment promotion functions
As Viet Nam enters a new phase of FDI attraction – prioritising quality, sustainability, and high technology – its investment promotion and facilitation framework should evolve accordingly. The FIA, under MoF, combines multiple roles: policy design, regulatory oversight, data management, investment promotion, and outward investment support. While current arrangements have supported strong FDI performance, international experience suggests that clearer functional differentiation between regulatory and promotional activities can enhance efficiency, accountability and investor confidence. The skills and cultures required for regulation differ from those needed for promotion. Regulation – or state management functions – demands legal and compliance expertise, while promotion requires investor care, business development, and international marketing. When both functions sit in one agency, conflicts of interest can arise, accountability is blurred, and investor trust is undermined, as the same body charged with promoting investment is also empowered to restrict it. The establishment of the NIC in 2019 has complemented the investment framework by supporting the attraction of technology-oriented FDI, particularly in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, while FIA continues to perform its regulatory and policy functions.
International experience suggests that separating regulatory and investment promotion functions can be effective. In most OECD countries, regulatory duties are within ministries, while promotion is delegated to specialised agencies with clear, non-duplicative mandates (OECD, 2018[8]). ASEAN peers such as Singapore’s EDB, Thailand’s BOI, and Malaysia’s MIDA demonstrate how autonomous, well-resourced promotion agencies can become trusted partners for investors (OECD, 2023[9]). For Viet Nam, policymaking and regulatory oversight could remain in the MoF, while a dedicated investment promotion agency focuses exclusively on marketing the country, facilitating projects, and delivering investor services, reporting either to the MoF Minister or the Prime Minister.
In OECD economies, more than two-thirds of IPAs have supervisory or advisory boards that bring together senior representatives from key ministries alongside private sector actors (OECD, 2018[8]). These boards improve co-ordination across government, align investment promotion with industrial, environmental, and regional priorities, and strengthen accountability. For Viet Nam, establishing such a board would help link investment attraction to broader goals of industrial upgrading, sustainable growth, and regional development. Other countries provide models for addressing investment promotion governance and co-ordination challenges. For example, Ireland’s IDA integrates innovation and investment promotion in a single agency, with targeted data collection and evaluation tools. Costa Rica’s IPA acts as a one-stop agency linking FDI attraction with skills training and supplier development. The Netherlands’ Invest in Holland Network provides a national–regional co-ordination platform with shared branding and joint investor servicing.
1.3.2. Modernise regulatory frameworks: Easing restrictions in high-skill services, enforcing IPR, strengthening labour rights and improving environmental standards
Consider easing FDI barriers in sectors that advance productive and inclusive growth
Viet Nam has gradually liberalised its investment regime, but important restrictions remain in knowledge- and digital intensive services such as telecommunications and finance. Barriers in these sectors are higher than in peer ASEAN economies. These sectors not only offer high potential for knowledge transfer and skills diffusion but are also female-intensive, creating opportunities for inclusive growth. Easing foreign ownership caps, removing time limits on property ownership, and simplifying commercial presence requirements would strengthen competition, improve the availability of high-quality services, and generate new skill-intensive jobs. At the same time, regulatory processes for investment registration and land use permits remain complex and uneven across provinces, highlighting the need for simplification and greater consistency in implementation.
Strengthen implementation of IPR and digital regulations
Weak IPR enforcement continues to deter technology transfer, even as Viet Nam has expanded its legal framework. Strengthening enforcement – including greater institutional awareness, improved inter-agency co-ordination, and potential institutional reforms to improve IP adjudication – would help effective protection of patents and trademarks, build investor confidence and facilitate knowledge spillovers. In parallel, clarifying rules on data localisation, cybersecurity, and digital services would reduce compliance burdens and legal uncertainty for investors, while ensuring coherence between MoPS, MoST, and Defence agencies. Improved independence of the Telecommunications Authority would further increase regulatory credibility.
Deepen labour and gender reforms to sustain the employment benefits of FDI
Continued labour market reforms are critical to maximising the employment benefits of FDI. Viet Nam has made progress through revisions to the Trade Union and Employment Laws, labour market reforms linked to international agreements (EVFTA, CPTPP), and ratification of ILO conventions, but further efforts are needed to strengthen collective bargaining, reduce informality, and facilitate the entry of skilled foreign workers. Worker voice arrangements and stronger labour rights would improve conditions in MNEs and support collective solutions to emerging challenges. At the same time, persistent gender gaps constrain inclusiveness: women remain underrepresented in management and high-tech sectors despite their strong presence in the financial sector. Integrating gender considerations into ongoing labour law reforms, operationalising labour market information systems (LMIS) – including through big data use – to track disparities, and involving investment bodies (e.g. FIA) in skills and gender policy and LMIS would better align FDI with women’s economic empowerment.
Strengthen green investment regulations to meet Viet Nam’s net-zero ambitions
The legal and regulatory framework for green investment requires significant strengthening to meet Viet Nam’s climate and net-zero ambitions. Environmental impact assessments (EIAs) and public consultations often occur too late – although ongoing reforms may request earlier assessments – in project cycles and lack impartiality, limiting their effectiveness. Improving early-stage assessments, resourcing appraisal committees, and enhancing monitoring post-approval are critical. Energy efficiency policies face similar challenges, with low electricity prices undermining private investment; aligning prices with supply costs, raising awareness, and providing targeted support would boost uptake. For renewables, improving risk allocation in power purchase agreements (PPAs) through long-term purchase obligations, international arbitration, and clearer compensation rules would enhance project bankability. Finally, accelerating power market liberalisation – by opening retail and wholesale markets to private players and strengthening market contestability through carefully sequenced reforms – would improve competition and attract sustainable FDI in the energy sector. International experience suggests that liberalisation outcomes depend critically on regulatory capacity, transparent market rules and effective system operation, rather than ownership reform alone (World Bank, 2019[10]).
Improve the implementation and awareness of responsible business conduct policies
Viet Nam has made progress in promoting RBC in recent years, with several laws, policies, and initiatives in the different areas covered by the MNE Guidelines. This includes the adoption of the “National Action Plan for Law and Policy Improvement to Promote Responsible Business Practices in Viet Nam” (2023-2027), which seeks to align the domestic legislative framework with international commitments in areas such as environmental protection, labour standards, and gender equality. Going forward, Viet Nam could consider further advancing RBC by raising awareness among businesses and policymakers, and integrating RBC into public procurement criteria and the operations of state-owned enterprises. Other areas for improvement include strengthening the enforcement of environmental disclosure mechanisms for public and private companies, ensuring implementation of the revised Labour Code, and imposing higher fines and more effective litigation for environmental offenses.
1.3.3. Rebalance incentives and support, shifting from income- to expenditure-based incentives for R&D, skills, and green innovation
Align incentives with productivity, skills, innovation and inclusion goals
Viet Nam offers some of the most generous corporate income tax (CIT) incentives in ASEAN, primarily income-based (CIT exemptions and reduced CIT rates). These incentives may have helped attracting investment in manufacturing but are poorly targeted and risks creating fiscal costs without delivering strong productivity gains. Recent policy reforms have sought to better align incentives with strategic sectors. In particular, the Prime Minister’s Decision 29/2021/QD-TTg and the Government of Viet Nam’s Decree No. 182/2024/ND-CP introduced additional support measures for priority activities such as artificial intelligence, R&D, high technology, clean energy and data centre investments. Nonetheless, shifting further toward expenditure-based incentives – such as R&D tax credits, training allowances, or co-financing for green investments – would better stimulate long-term investments in innovation, workforce skills, and sustainable technologies. The new Investment Support Fund can cover up to 50% of eligible training costs in high-tech sectors, but uptake is still low – incentives introduced in 2013 for reimbursement of training costs have not taken up due to administrative burdens. Stronger co-financing models and closer alignment with MNEs’ needs are required. In the digital economy, incentives should be tied to measurable outcomes such as R&D, workforce development, and technology transfer, supported by clear eligibility criteria and regular performance reviews.
Viet Nam could leverage its incentive framework more effectively to advance gender equality and the green transition. Gender-focused tax incentives remain complex and risk excluding many firms; they should be simplified and better aligned with priority sectors, while embedding gender targets into high-tech incentives to avoid widening disparities. Similarly, income-based or indirect incentives for renewables should be replaced by expenditure-based instruments that lower input costs for genuinely additional projects. Electricity tariff reform – by gradually aligning prices with supply cost while maintaining targeted support for poor households – would improve investment conditions for green energy, strengthen utility financial viability, and support grid investment. Above all, stable, predictable policies, including renewable auctions announced well in advance, are essential to reduce risk and attract sustainable FDI.
Tax incentives transparency is also crucial along the full tax incentive lifecycle – from conception to implementation, monitoring, and evaluation – to support policymakers in improving the design and implementation of tax incentives (OECD, forthcoming[11]). Viet Nam could address current barriers to transparency by consolidating all tax incentives into the main body of the tax law and implementing complementary measures to raise awareness of the instruments. For example, creating an online, multilingual portal consolidating all incentives by sector, activity, and province would provide clarity for investors and allow closer monitoring of uptake and impact.
Strengthen technical support to build linkages and link investment with skills, gender, and green capabilities
Beyond incentives, stronger technical assistance is needed to deepen spillovers from FDI. Several support programmes aim to strengthen SME participation in supply chains, including the SME Development Fund and regional assistance centres. However, weak co-ordination and low uptake reduce impact. Other countries have established robust platforms for SME upgrading that Viet Nam could emulate. Supplier development programmes should be co-designed with MNEs to address real capability gaps, combining technical assistance with financial support and targeted interventions, such as co-financed product certification schemes. Examples include Thailand’s Unit for Industrial Linkage Development and Korea’s supplier certification schemes. Expanding advisory services and training for international standards compliance, and aligning national standards with global norms, would help SMEs access export markets and join GVCs. Dedicated online tools – a supplier database by industry and province, and a centralised digital portal consolidating SME support – would improve visibility and uptake of support measures, while provincial IPAs could expand aftercare services through matchmaking to encourage local sourcing.
Technical support should also target workforce development and inclusion. Expanding skills anticipation exercises, as an integral part of an effective LMIS, with active input from the investment community, would help align training with enterprise needs, particularly in digital, semiconductor, and green sectors. Stronger education–industry collaboration and joint training centres with MNEs could overcome barriers to practical skill development, while targeted programmes for women – focusing on digital literacy, management, and leadership – would enable their career advancement in foreign firms. In parallel, dedicated strategies for green skills and green innovation, supported by start-up accelerators and international partnerships, would help SMEs develop absorptive capacity and integrate into green value chains. Together, these measures would ensure that Viet Nam’s FDI delivers not only investment but also stronger linkages, skills, and inclusiveness across the economy.
1.3.4. Enhance investment promotion and transparency, focusing on high-quality FDI and reducing information asymmetries through digital disclosure tools
Viet Nam’s investment promotion and facilitation framework is shifting from a focus on attracting capital inflows to positioning FDI as a tool for transformative development. The government increasingly emphasises the role of investment in driving digital transformation, supporting the low-carbon transition, and advancing national socio-economic goals. While these ambitions align with global trends and Viet Nam’s own strategic documents, their implementation remains at an early stage. In recent years, investment promotion has become more targeted, in line with the Politburo’s Resolution No. 50-NQ/TW of August 2019. Building on this strategic shift, further efforts should continue to strengthen a value-driven approach, ensuring that FDI contributes to productivity, skills, innovation, gender equality, and the green transition. Several cross-cutting opportunities for improvement have been identified as priorities to strengthen the alignment between investment promotion practices and Viet Nam’s broader strategic vision, ultimately leveraging FDI more effectively to support national development goals (Table 1.3).
Source: OECD analysis based on OECD Surveys for IPAs, 2025.
Strengthen investment promotion to align with Viet Nam’s strategic goals
Viet Nam should move beyond broad-based attraction and prioritise sectors with the highest potential for productivity gains, technology transfer, and inclusive growth. Promotion efforts could focus on high- and medium-tech industries where Viet Nam has comparative advantages, including higher value-added niches in traditional sectors, as well as skill-intensive services and digital industries such as 5G, cloud services, and e-commerce. FIA should adopt structured investor targeting (e.g. based on sectors with high employment potential), lead generation, and aftercare models, guided by R&D, innovation, and sustainability indicators. International good practices (e.g. Costa Rica’s gender-focused FDI campaigns or Singapore’s green investment targeting) show that promotion strategies can integrate cross-cutting priorities such as women’s economic empowerment and the green transition. Embedding such goals more explicitly into a national investment promotion strategy would allow Viet Nam to maximise spillovers across productivity, digitalisation, job quality, and inclusion. In addition, specialised institutions (e.g. National Innovation Centre) could work in closer co-ordination with FIA by supporting outreach to technology-oriented investors, identifying promising innovation-driven firms, and facilitating partnerships with domestic start-ups and research organisations. Developing lists of priority multinational enterprises aligned with national development objectives, and designing targeted engagement strategies –including tailored promotional and facilitation packages where appropriate– could further strengthen Viet Nam’s ability to attract investors that bring advanced technologies and innovation activities.
Streamline investment facilitation to improve the investor experience
Effective implementation of the 2025 revised Law on Investment can help address cumbersome procedures for permits, land access, and licensing processes. Viet Nam should also expand digital one-stop shops, enabling end-to-end online services with application tracking, integrated payment systems, and AI-enabled matchmaking between investors and local suppliers. Examples from Malaysia, Lithuania, and Estonia show the benefits of combining specialised digital facilitation units with streamlined regulatory frameworks. Dedicated facilitation channels for renewable energy projects, coupled with simplified procedures and better land access, could address barriers to green investment. Similarly, streamlined visa and work permit processes for foreign experts, alongside partnerships between MNEs, education and vocational training establishments, would help close critical skills gaps. Transparency is equally important: consolidating information on incentives, suppliers, and investor practices in a unified portal would help reduce asymmetries, strengthen accountability, and improve SME access to opportunities. Dedicated aftercare units for strategic sectors – green energy, digital, or gender-sensitive industries – could further support reinvestment, promote local sourcing, and strengthen domestic linkages. Joining the WTO initiative on Investment Facilitation can help signal commitment to the facilitation actions Viet Nam is undertaking.
Enhance accountability, data, and co-ordination to align FDI with national priorities
To ensure FDI delivers broad-based benefits, Viet Nam needs stronger mechanisms for monitoring, evaluation, and policy coherence. Investment promotion and facilitation activities should be guided by a dynamic, data-driven prioritisation model drawing on sources such as the Provincial Innovation Index, national enterprise surveys, and skills anticipation systems. Developing comprehensive KPIs that capture not only volumes of FDI but also its impact on R&D, skills, gender equality, and environmental performance would provide the basis for evidence-based policymaking. Finally, further improved co-ordination between FIA, NSO, NIC, MoST, provincial IPAs, and other agencies – backed by governance reforms such as a strategic board for FIA – would reduce duplication and ensure investment promotion aligns with national strategies for productivity, digitalisation, gender equality, and the green transition.
References
[7] GIZ (2025), Vietnamese and European companies commit to improving the qualifications of technicians in wind and solar energy.
[2] OECD (2025), OECD Economic Surveys: Viet Nam 2025, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/fb37254b-en.
[5] OECD (2024), FDI Qualities Review of Tunisia: Boosting Productivity and Creating Better Jobs, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/d8a28bca-en.
[9] OECD (2023), “Enabling sustainable investment in ASEAN”, OECD Business and Finance Policy Papers, No. 23, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/eb34f287-en.
[3] OECD (2023), Viet Nam and the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises, OECD-Viet Nam Investment Forum, Background Note for Session 2, https://storageprdv2inwink.blob.core.windows.net/dcac766f-661c-41d0-ba2d-4bc26896de1d/ed04855b-17f1-4fa0-8eac-7af71c38a4aa.
[4] OECD (2022), FDI Qualities Policy Toolkit, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/7ba74100-en.
[8] OECD (2018), Mapping of investment promotion agencies in OECD countries, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/098e4f0e-en.
[1] OECD (2018), OECD Investment Policy Reviews: Viet Nam 2018, OECD Investment Policy Reviews, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264282957-en.
[11] OECD (forthcoming), Tax incentive policymaking: a practical guide.
[6] Trinh, N. et al. (2026), “FDI dominance and the scope for a modern domestic industry”, Research Policy, Vol. 55/1, p. 105368, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2025.105368.
[10] World Bank (2019), Rethinking Power Sector Reform in the Developing World.
← 1. Statistics provided by the National Statistical Office (NSO) provided information on firms’ revenues, the number of female and male workers, and the wage bill, disaggregated by ownership, sector, and region. Value-added was not available and revenues was used as proxy to estimate labour productivity.