Vietnam Industry 2025: $900B Trade & 10.6% Mfg Growth

Highlights of the Industry and Trade Sector Create Momentum for the Pivotal Year 2026

The Industry and Trade sector in 2025 marked substantive progress from production and trade to energy, contributing to macro stability and enhancing the economy’s competitiveness.

Speaking with Industry and Trade Newspaper, National Assembly Deputy Trinh Thi Tu Anh (Lam Dong Delegation) provided comprehensive assessments of the results achieved and suggestions for the Industry and Trade sector to accelerate in 2026.

Strong Recovery in Industrial Production Reporter: Deputy, looking back at 2025, what are the most outstanding highlights of the Industry and Trade sector? How do you assess the level of completion of the targets assigned by the National Assembly?

Deputy Trinh Thi Tu Anh: In 2025, the Industry and Trade sector can be said to have gone through a year of many challenges but also recorded very clear bright spots.

The first outstanding highlight is the strong recovery of industrial production. In 2025, industrial growth reached approximately 9.3%, of which the processing and manufacturing industry achieved double-digit growth, reaching 10.6%, continuing to affirm its role as the key driver of economic growth, creating a foundation for development in the next phase.

I am also particularly impressed with the import-export results, as the total turnover reached the USD 900 billion milestone for the first time. In the export structure, many high-tech items such as computers and electronic components achieved a value of over USD 100 billion, reflecting a major step forward in production capacity and deeper participation in the global value chain. This result is even more significant in the context of a declining world economy and global trade difficulties.

Regarding international economic integration, I highly appreciate the Industry and Trade sector for proactively expanding and effectively exploiting Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), thereby bringing practical benefits to the economy. Promoting international economic integration is also a step to concretize Politburo Resolution No. 59 on international integration in the new situation, contributing to enhancing Vietnam’s position in the international arena.

Regarding energy infrastructure, currently, the scale of Vietnam’s power system is assessed to rank 1st in ASEAN and 20th in the world. Many key energy infrastructure works have been completed, including the 500kV Lao Cai – Vinh Yen line, along with a series of other important projects. These results have contributed to ensuring national energy security and serving socio-economic development.

Especially, in my opinion, to achieve the above breakthrough results, the work of building and perfecting institutions by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) played a pivotal role. The sector advised on the issuance of many important resolutions, laws, and documents, including Politburo Resolution No. 70 on ensuring energy security to 2030, vision to 2045; and Resolution No. 189 of the 15th National Assembly on specific mechanisms and policies for the Ninh Thuan Nuclear Power Plant project.

Furthermore, the National Assembly passed three important laws, including the Law on Chemicals, the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Economical and Efficient Use of Energy, and the Law on E-commerce. During the process of organizing the apparatus and deploying the two-tier local government model, MOIT also issued two important decrees on defining management authority between government levels and on decentralization in the industrial and commercial fields to improve state management efficiency. Overall, the sector issued 21 decrees, 3 decisions, and 49 circulars under its authority.

I highly appreciate MOIT’s proactivity and positivity in building and perfecting the legal system. It is this institutional foundation that created conditions for the sector to achieve very impressive results recently, while creating a foundation for higher development steps in 2026 and subsequent years.

Identifying Bottlenecks to Accelerate Development Reporter: In your opinion, what bottlenecks need to be clearly identified by the Industry and Trade sector regarding industrial digital transformation, export market expansion, and handling trade remedy issues?

Deputy Trinh Thi Tu Anh: Besides the noteworthy results, to accelerate development sustainably, there are still some bottlenecks that need to be identified and removed.

First, digital transformation in industry, although receiving attention, has not met expectations. Many manufacturing enterprises, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), still have limitations regarding digital infrastructure, investment capital, and data governance capacity.

Second, regarding export market expansion, Vietnamese enterprises still lack quality standards and the ability to meet international requirements for supply chain greening. The rate of enterprises participating deeply in the global value chain is still modest; supporting industries have not met the needs of key export sectors well.

Third, trade remedies are becoming an increasingly large challenge. The number of anti-dumping, anti-subsidy, and anti-circumvention investigations from markets like the US, EU, and India continues to rise sharply. Many enterprises still lack legal understanding, proper documentation, and response capacity when investigated, leading to risks of losing markets. Early warning work, technical support, and guiding enterprises to standardize export records need to be strengthened further.

Foundation for Acceleration in 2026 Reporter: So, according to you, what steps do we need to take to complete the growth targets in 2026 and subsequent years?

Deputy Trinh Thi Tu Anh: In my opinion:

First of all, MOIT needs to push digital transformation throughout the sector, especially in market forecasting, applying digital technology to forecast supply-demand in key fields such as electricity, energy, food, and foodstuffs, thereby proactively responding to domestic and international fluctuations.

Secondly, we need policies to support enterprises in energy transition, promoting the use of renewable energy, LNG, and new environmentally friendly energies. Simultaneously, support enterprises to meet green standards and rules of origin to access major markets like the EU, US, and Japan more effectively.

Thirdly, Vietnam’s industry needs to shift strongly towards deep processing industry and knowledge-and-technology-based industry, gradually reducing the growth model based on simple labor and resources. From there, improving value-added and the competitiveness of the economy.

Fourthly, regarding ensuring energy security, it is necessary to synchronously resolve renewable energy bottlenecks, accelerate the synchronization of source-grid-load planning, as well as promote standardization regarding safety, redundancy, and energy saving.

Finally, regarding supporting enterprises to recover and expand markets, we need to promote the trade remedy early warning system, strengthen negotiations to open markets, and support businesses to meet the green standards of new-generation FTAs.

I believe that with the above solutions, the Industry and Trade sector will have sufficient conditions to successfully complete the growth targets for 2026 and subsequent years.

Reporter: Thank you very much, Deputy!

Previously, at the MOIT Review Conference held on December 19, 2025, the Industry and Trade sector determined the highest determination right from the beginning of the year for 2026, striving to successfully complete the set targets, creating a solid foundation for the new period. The sector focuses on deploying key tasks and solutions: continuing to deeply grasp and strictly implementing the Party’s guidelines, National Assembly Resolutions, and Government directives; identifying institution building as a strategic breakthrough; promoting industrial production; boosting trade development (domestic and international); and improving state management efficiency and the sector’s competitiveness.