Deputy Prime Minister Hồ Quốc Dũng Tells the National Assembly Vietnam Must Have ‘Make in Vietnam’ AI
Vietnam must develop artificial intelligence under its own “Make in Vietnam” brand, Deputy Prime Minister Hồ Quốc Dũng told the National Assembly on November 12, VOV reported. Speaking during the question-and-answer session on finance and science and technology at the second sitting of the 16th National Assembly, he said the government sees AI as a breakthrough able to create new productivity, knowledge and creativity, but one that also carries many risks and calls for careful judgement.
The government’s view, he said, is that using AI must go hand in hand with ensuring sovereignty, security and safety, and must put people at the centre. Vietnam needs to master the technology step by step and control how it is applied, rather than depend on platforms and technologies it cannot control. He added that security and safety in AI use received particular attention as the government drew up the national digital architecture framework. Dũng also cited international rankings: Vietnam placed 43rd of 139 countries in the 2026 Global Innovation Index and 37th of 70 economies in IMD’s 2026 world digital competitiveness and AI ranking, third in Southeast Asia, which he said already meets the 2030 target set in Resolution 57.
What it means in practice
The bigger change is in how research money is spent. For the first time, the government has identified 20 major national problems and 30 technology products to focus on, and assigned responsibility for them to 10 ministers. It is also, for the first time, funding companies directly to research strategic technologies and accepting the risk that some research will fail. About 19 tasks had been approved by the time of the report to the National Assembly, which Dũng called an initial result: progress is still slow, he said, but the approach is heading in the right direction. Research institutes and universities will no longer simply propose projects for state funding; their work will be tied to deployment and commercialisation so that results have practical value.
The remarks came in the same session in which the science minister set out support for small firms applying AI, and they build on efforts such as Viettel’s Vietnamese-language model for a sovereign AI push and the Prime Minister’s plan for advanced AI training centres. What to watch is which homegrown AI products emerge from the national problems, and how fast the remaining strategic technology tasks are approved.