October 9, 2023
During the inaugural national forum on the digital economy and digital society convened in mid-September, Vietnam outlined ambitious targets for its digital economic growth. Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Manh Hung, articulated the nation’s aspirations, aiming for the digital economy to constitute 20 percent of the GDP by 2025 and further accelerate to 30 percent by 2030. This visionary plan also includes ensuring that each field and sector achieves a minimum digital economy index of 10 percent by 2025 and an elevated 20 percent by 2030.
However, recent reports from the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) have highlighted the challenges facing Vietnam in meeting these objectives. Their data indicates that the digital economy’s contribution to GDP stood at approximately 15.26 percent for the second quarter of the year and 14.96 percent for the first half of 2023. These figures underscore the imperative for Vietnam to redouble its efforts over the next seven years if it hopes to attain its digital economic goals.
In late 2022, a joint report by Google, Temasek, and Bain & Company spotlighted Vietnam’s digital economy as the fastest-growing in Southeast Asia. Notably, the gross merchandise value (GMV) was expected to surge by an impressive 28 percent, leaping from $18 billion in 2021 to an estimated $23 billion in 2022. This substantial growth was chiefly attributed to the remarkable 26 percent expansion of the e-commerce sector.
The report underscored the pivotal role of e-commerce in propelling Vietnam’s digital economy forward, revealing that around 90 percent of digital consumers expressed their intention to maintain or augment their usage of e-commerce platforms throughout 2023.
Stephanie Davis, Vice President for Asia Pacific at Google, lauded Vietnam’s top-ranking performance in 2022, recognizing it as the Southeast Asian leader in terms of digital economic and e-commerce growth. Even amidst the prevailing global and regional challenges, Vietnam was poised to further elevate its GMV to an impressive $50 billion by 2025.
The driving force behind Vietnam’s thriving e-commerce landscape was identified as consumer preferences, with a keen focus on food delivery services (60 percent) and online grocery purchases (54 percent). Urban digital users in Vietnam demonstrated the highest adoption rates, with 96 percent engaging in e-commerce activities, while food and groceries topped the list at 85 percent each.
Moreover, the report revealed that 23 percent of respondents regularly consumed video-on-demand content, 19 percent engaged in online gaming, and 16 percent devoted time to music streaming. These statistics underscore the substantial untapped potential within Vietnam’s digital economy, offering promising prospects for long-term growth.
Experts have emphasized that Vietnam’s digital economic growth heavily hinges on the success of its e-commerce sector. Nonetheless, there remain numerous unexplored opportunities in other digital economy domains where Vietnam possesses significant potential and latent capabilities.
Source: Vietnamnet
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