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talent attraction should leverage PIT exemptions under Resolution 198/2025 combined
with fast-track visa and residency pathways for AI researchers, data scientists, and
semiconductor engineers, analogous to Singapore's TechPass.
5.3. AI-enabled public investment and new models of national governance
Public investment disbursement reached VND 858.6 trillion (USD 33 billion) in 2025,
the highest in the 2021-2025 period, while the 2026-2030 plan targets 40.7% of total
budget resources. The strategic imperative is not volume but intelligence: embedding AI
throughout the infrastructure lifecycle so that transport, energy, digital, and urban
projects generate both efficiency gains and the structured data that feeds future AI
productivity applications, directly elevating public investment's contribution to TFP.
Decision No. 2597/QD-TTg (November 2025) mandating BIM for level-II and above
public works from 2026 is paradigm-shifting: BIM produces the structured spatial and
engineering data enabling AI-driven construction management, lifecycle optimization, and
smart urban planning. Extending this mandate progressively across transport, energy, and
water infrastructure would build a national digital infrastructure asset database,
analogous to a digital cadastre, as the foundation for AI-driven predictive maintenance
and infrastructure planning, translating public capital into measurable TFP contributions.
In public administration, Hanoi's target of 100% digital governance activities and Ho
Chi Minh City's Digital Transformation Center provide replicable models for AI-integrated
smart city governance. A national AI governance performance index, parallel to existing
digital transformation rankings, should annually rank ministries, agencies, and provinces
by AI-enabled productivity improvements, creating competitive accountability incentives
and a longitudinal dataset for research on Vietnam's AI-governance-TFP nexus.
5.4. Operationalizing the national AI development fund as a risk-tolerant public
investor
The AI Law mandates a National AI Development Fund, a State financial vehicle
outside the standard budget, authorized to absorb innovation risk that private markets
will not bear (Vietnam News, 2026c). Under Decision No. 367/QD-TTg (March 2026), the
Ministry of Science and Technology manages the National AI Database and data standards,
while the Ministry of Public Security oversees the National Data Center. This constitutes
precisely the patient public capital that Mazzucato (2013) identifies as indispensable for
breakthrough technology transitions. The Fund should prioritize: (a) Vietnamese-language
AI foundational model development to maximize domestic TFP applicability; (b) AI safety
and alignment research for emerging-market deployment; and (c) co-investment with
NATIF in SME-facing AI platforms with documented productivity multipliers.
5.5. AI-ification of everything: embedding ai in sector-specific productivity regimes
Vietnam's Prime Minister framed the AI agenda as pursuing AI-isation the way we
once pursued electrification, but faster (Vietnam News, 2026c), signaling that AI must
function as horizontal productivity infrastructure across all regulated sectors, not as
isolated experiments. The government should introduce AI productivity mandates
requiring SOEs, public hospitals, state universities, and infrastructure operators to publish
annual AI productivity audits quantifying TFP impact, reported to the Ministry of Science
and Technology under a standardized framework. With science, technology, innovation,
and digital transformation targeted to contribute 17.5% of GDP by 2026 under Resolution
57-NQ/TW's implementation plan, measurement and accountability of sectoral AI-TFP
contributions becomes non-negotiable. Da Nang's 2026 plan, targeting 15% digital

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