Vietnam’s revenue from the digital technology industry reached VND3.95 quadrillion ($155 billion) at of the end of 2024, and VND54 trillion was paid to the state budget, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC)

Of this, revenue of Vietnamese firms was VND673 trillion, or $26.4 billion.

By the end of November 2024, Vietnam had 27,600 technology firms (IT, electronics, telecommunications), generating 1.26 million jobs, while the ratio of digital technology firm per 1,000 people in Vietnam was 0.76.

These included 4,500 hardware manufacturing enterprises (computer equipment, electronic and telecommunications, smart devices), 12,500 software producers, 750 digital content producers and 9,700 IT service providers.

Regarding the labor structure, hardware enterprises employed the highest number of workers, over 900,000, while software firms employed 224,000 workers.

There were 84,000 workers working at IT service providing companies and over 3,700 at digital content firms.

‘Make in Vietnam’ strategy

To promote digital economy, in 2019 Vietnam founded a community of digital technology firms with ‘Make in Vietnam’ mission, to research in Vietnam, design in Vietnam and manufacture in Vietnam. 

The "Make in Vietnam" slogan served as a rallying call to guide the nation's technology companies towards innovating and developing products domestically.

Just over the last five years, Vietnam’s digital technology industry has made significant progress.

MIC reported that in 2024, Vietnamese value in total revenue from ICT industry reached VND1.16 quadrillion ($45.5 billion). Of this, IT revenue alone was VND248 trillion. The value Vietnam created in total revenue of foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) was VND486 trillion ($19 billion).

Notably, the export value of IT, electronic and telecommunication hardware products in 2024 is estimated to reach VND132 trillion, accounting for 32 percent of total export value of the nation.

Nguyen Khac Lich, head of the Authority of ICT Industry, said the Vietnamese value in total revenue of the digital technology industry has increased sharply since 'Make in Vietnam' was launched. The proportion was 21.35 percent in 2019 and it 31.8 percent now.

When implementing ‘Make in Vietnam’ strategy, enterprises have to have high creativity and design levels, thus promoting creativity in solving major questions of the country, and from this, going global. The added value in Vietnam, therefore, will be higher than that value from just assembling and outsourcing.

'Make in Vietnam' not only serves as the driving force for domestic digital technology firm to develop, but also as a direction for Vietnam’s enterprises to reach the world market.

MIC reported that about 1,500 digital technology firms have revenue from foreign markets.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) reported that there were 207 outward investment projects in the field of ICT with total registered capital of $2.82 billion, or 13 percent of total outward investment of the whole country.

Vietnamese enterprises have improved, making products with high creativity and technology, thus creating higher added value.

The big leaps are clear evidence for the creativity of Vietnam’s digital technology firms in the international market.

According to Vinasa (Vietnam Software and IT Services), with 20 Vietnamese IT firms operating in Japan, in 2020-2024, the total revenue of businesses increased from $672 million to VND1.345 billion, which meant a growth rate of 22-28 percent per annum. The total number of workers increased by 8,000.

FPT, Viettel and Sconnect are typical examples of success of the Make in Vietnam strategy.

After exceeding the $1 billion threshold in revenue from software exports to foreign markets, FPT has begun a new race, striving for $5 billion revenue by 2030.

As for Viettel, 15 years after opening the first foreign market, the military company has become a professional international market, ranking first in 7 of 10 international markets.

Its revenue from overseas operations reached $3 billion in 2023, and the amount of foreign currencies the group transferred to Vietnam is up to $500 million.

Viettel once surprised the world when displaying circuit board and 5G chips at MWC, the world’s largest mobile exhibition. It is the only mobile network operator in the world that can manufacture telecom equipment, which helped turn Vietnam into one of six countries that first mastered 5G technology.

Thai Khang