Data as a growth engine

According to Professor Dr Tran Tho Dat, former Rector of the National Economics University, economic growth in the past was often driven by traditional resources such as capital and labour. Yet in the context of global digital transformation, data has become the foundation of the economic development model.

Integrating data into growth analysis shows that data not only supplements capital and labour, but is also a key driver of total factor productivity and allocation efficiency. For Viet Nam, in the process of digital transformation and renewal of the growth model, data is both a growth driver and a tool to support the transition to a green development model, contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals.

In recent years, across sectors and localities, efforts to promote the guiding role of data platforms and digital technologies for production and business have been actively implemented step by step.

A typical example is the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, which has issued its sectoral data strategy to 2030, with orientations to 2035, together with a digital architecture framework and a data architecture framework aligned with national data.

To date, the Ministry has completed the development and operation of 21 specialised databases and four shared information systems. It has connected and synchronised all 12 national and specialised databases in line with Party and Government requirements, helping to form a data ecosystem that is “correct, sufficient, clean, alive, unified and shared”.

In particular, the national agricultural product traceability system has been launched with more than 18,500 products, 919 consignments, 547 farming households, 255 growing areas and 149 enterprises participating. This is an important tool for making value chains more transparent and enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnamese agricultural products in international markets.

According to Cu Ngoc Trang, Director of the Ha Noi Department of Science and Technology, the city identifies data as a strategic asset and the foundation of digital government, digital economy and digital society. Ha Noi has therefore shifted from digitising processes and systems to restructuring processes, opening data, connecting data, reusing data and serving administration on the basis of data.

Results in online public services, restructuring administrative procedures, issuing electronic results, reusing digitised data, land data, electronic health records, education data, public assets and investment management have had a clear impact on state management and service to citizens and businesses.

To date, all 17 departments and sectors of Ha Noi have participated in data opening with all 93 datasets, reaching 100%. Several specialised databases have been established and exploited, including more than 543,000 public assets; more than 27,000 investment projects; more than 129,000 files of officials, civil servants and public employees synchronised to the national database; around 24 sub‑regional planning schemes standardised in GIS format; education data exploited through more than 100 dashboards for 126 communes and wards; a database for about 3.24 million land parcels; and more than 9.2 million electronic health records standardised.

From fragmentation to market

However, the implementation process still faces difficulties and shortcomings in harnessing data resources. According to the Ha Noi Department of Science and Technology, data remain fragmented and not yet fully synchronised across sectors; some national and specialised databases have not been opened for full sharing; and the use of data to completely replace paper files, create socio‑economic value and develop the data economy remains limited.

Notably, specialised human resources in data, AI, information security, system administration, digital architecture design and technology commercialisation are still lacking; and digital capacity at grassroots level is uneven.

Experts point out that there is still a significant gap between “data accumulation” and “value creation from data”. At the same time, the effectiveness of data exploitation depends on the quality of institutions, because without appropriate regulatory mechanisms data can lead to market concentration and monopoly, creating overwhelming advantages for certain units and enterprises.

Therefore, data institutions — including ownership rights, access rights, personal data protection and competition safeguards — need to be clearly defined to ensure efficient allocation and use in the economy.

Dr Dat and his colleagues believe that to harness data resources, Viet Nam needs to move from “building data infrastructure” to “using data effectively”. Viet Nam has made important progress in infrastructure and legal frameworks, but the biggest challenge remains turning data into economic value through improved productivity and more efficient allocation of resources.

This requires clarifying ownership, access and exploitation rights for data, while also establishing mechanisms for sharing and interoperability between the public and private sectors; building a sufficiently strong ecosystem of institutions, markets and exploitation capacity so that data operates as a production factor.

Notably, the State needs to play the role of a “market maker” by providing public data, establishing technical standards and building trust for transactions. When the data market operates effectively, data resources will be allocated to the sectors with the highest marginal productivity, improving the economy’s overall efficiency.

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