Vietnam's Economy in the New Era: Conditions, Challenges and Solutions of an Innovation-Based Growth Model[Kinh tế Việt Nam trong thời kỳ mới: điều kiện, thách thức và giải pháp của mô hình tăng trưởng dựa trên đổi mới sáng tạo]

This article, authored by a group of Vietnamese and French economists, analyzes Vietnam's economic development challenges and proposes an innovation-driven growth model for the country's new era. After nearly four decades of Doi Moi reforms, Vietnam has achieved remarkable GDP growth, reaching over $514 billion in 2025, but its traditional growth model (based on cheap labor, resource extraction, and assembly-focused FDI) is reaching structural limits. The authors identify several critical development traps threatening Vietnam's future: the middle-income trap, the low-technology trap, the trade trap, and the demographic aging trap. To overcome these challenges, they propose a new growth model built on three pillars: (1) enterprise-led R&D and innovation, (2) digital and green transition, and (3) high-quality human capital development. A central recommendation is to raise R&D spending from the current 0.4–0.5% of GDP to 3% by 2045, with at least 60% contributed by the private sector. The article also advocates building 5–6 world-class universities by 2030–2045 and, crucially, adapting France's CIFRE model (a co-funded PhD program linking universities and businesses) to Vietnamese conditions. A four-phase implementation roadmap spanning 2026 to 2045 is proposed, with six interconnected policy recommendation groups targeting R&D incentives, university excellence, enterprise-university linkages, innovation ecosystems, quality FDI attraction, and institutional reform.