Opening session of the Fourth Plenum of the 14th Party Central Committee. — VNA/VNS Photo Phương Hoa

HÀ NỘI — General Secretary of the Communist Party of Việt Nam (CPV) Central Committee and President Tô Lâm opened the fourth plenum of the 14th CPV Central Committee on Monday by outlining four areas for discussion, including priorities for 2027 and how best to mobilise national resources to drive rapid, sustainable development.

The Party and State leader said 2027 must be a year of acceleration, breakthroughs and profound change, building momentum towards achieving the goals set for the full term. He urged the committee to carefully examine key targets and solutions, particularly what would be needed to achieve GDP growth of 10 per cent or higher while keeping inflation at around 4.5 per cent.

The committee must identify the breakthroughs needed to translate resources into productive capacity, business performance and tangible results. The committee must remove institutional bottlenecks, improve the economy's capacity to absorb capital, and secure adequate infrastructure, energy and labour supplies.

As 2026 marks the first year of the 2026–30 five-year plan, targets for 2027 must be designed to deliver greater improvements in mobilising and using resources efficiently.

Growth remains a consistent priority: achieving double-digit expansion while maintaining macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, and preserving major economic balances.

To this end, ministries, agencies and localities must address institutional barriers to development and pursue breakthroughs in lawmaking and enforcement to unlock investment, production and trade. Other key tasks include further streamlining the State apparatus, improving the quality of officials and civil servants, strengthening discipline and curbing corruption and wastefulness.

In science, technology and innovation, ministries and agencies must continue reviewing and improving policies to facilitate breakthroughs, while prioritising the development of skilled workers in strategic fields, including artificial intelligence, big data, semiconductors, cybersecurity and next-generation digital technologies.

On infrastructure, the focus must be on accelerating key infrastructure works, nationally important projects and strategic inter-regional connections to create new growth drivers.

Drafting the 2027 socio-economic development plan is more than an annual task for ministries, agencies and localities. It represents an important step toward achieving the goals of the entire 2026–30 period, with the plan's quality determining whether major policies translate into concrete results and lay the foundations for high, sustainable growth.

Setting an appropriate growth target for 2027 is particularly important.

Việt Nam's GDP grew by 9.01 per cent in the first nine months of 2026, and fourth-quarter growth must exceed 12.5 per cent to meet the annual target. The 2027 target must therefore be carefully calibrated to keep the five-year plan on track and sustain growth momentum, without complacency or undue haste.

Breakthroughs are needed in several areas to turn resources into economic capacity in 2027.

Institutional enforcement: Laws and policies must be revised promptly, and vested and sectional interests eliminated. Link responsibility to implementation schedules, with lead agencies and deadlines clearly identified and effectiveness measured by tangible benefits for citizens.

Officials' capacity to deliver: Delegated authority must be matched with accountability, and powers must be matched with the resources needed to exercise them. Collective and individual responsibilities must be clearly defined to prevent blame-shifting. Officials willing to think innovatively and act in the common interest must be protected, while stagnation and reluctance to take responsibility must be dealt with strictly.

Science, technology, innovation and digital transformation: Productivity must improve substantially, with technology used to strengthen enterprises' autonomy and capabilities. Digital ecosystems must be developed in governance and production, links among research institutes, universities and businesses strengthened, and technology experts and talent in strategic fields attracted.

Public investment and business development: Public investment disbursement must be accelerated, and bottlenecks at ministries and agencies must be removed. Investment must be translated into actual production capacity and output. Domestic manufacturers must be supported in strengthening their technological capabilities, reducing trade deficits and increasing domestic value added in supply chains.

Using resources effectively, as the leader emphasised, means unlocking, mobilising, allocating and optimising the economy's resources to generate momentum for rapid, sustainable growth.

First, investment capital must be unlocked by removing obstacles holding up thousands of projects, accelerating public investment disbursement and directing capital from across society, including foreign direct investment (FDI) and public resources, into production and trade rather than leaving funds idle.

Next, the workforce must be improved by increasing the share of trained workers, enhancing digital literacy and technical skills, and drawing on overseas Vietnamese professionals and experts to build a workforce capable of meeting the demands of new production models.

Innovation and digital transformation must be advanced through increased spending on research and development (R&D), expansion of the digital and data economies, and a greater contribution from total factor productivity (TFP) to economic growth.

Policies and mechanisms must be made more transparent, the business environment improved, the "ask-give" mechanism eliminated, corruption curbed, and national governance capacity strengthened.

Resources must also be used more efficiently as Việt Nam pursues green growth, through better management of land, water, and minerals; promotion of clean energy and the circular economy; and reduced energy consumption per unit of GDP.

However, Việt Nam's economic resources have not yet been fully utilised.

Several bottlenecks continue to undermine efficiency. These include substantial investment requirements and a high incremental capital-output ratio (ICOR), meaning that large amounts of investment generate relatively modest returns. Other challenges include a low proportion of trained workers, severe shortages of highly skilled personnel and technology engineers, modest R&D spending relative to GDP, insufficient support for the private sector and heavy reliance on FDI.

Institutional constraints are another contributing factor, with overlapping legal regulations slowing capital flows and complicating access to and use of land. Inadequate and poorly connected infrastructure also keeps logistics and operating costs high across the economy.

Without more effective resource use, Việt Nam risks falling into the middle-income trap, characterised by slower growth and large investment volumes generating relatively limited output. Labour productivity and TFP's contribution to growth could fall short of expectations, making double-digit economic expansion increasingly difficult to achieve. — VNA/VNS