Capability agenda

Vietnam

Generated 2026-10-03

The frame includes 125 countries. Each dimension is scored from 0 to 100, with no overall ranking, and each score shows its confidence beside it. Read the known limits of the data before you quote a score.

Open the profile: indicators, values, years and sources

Where Vietnam stands

Dimension	Score	Confidence	Trend
Anticipation	27.7	0.46	+13.6 over 10 years using 2 indicators
Agency	61.6	0.56	no trend
Coordination	80.2	0.40	no trend
Trust	42.9	0.49	no trend
Learning	43.6	0.54	no trend
Experimentation	13.3	0.33	+1.7 over 10 years using 3 indicators
Adaptability	88.1	0.62	no trend
Building	75.8	0.55	+16 over 10 years using 3 indicators
Shared Purpose	44.3	0.25	no trend

Score

weakNear the floor of the frame. Check the confidence before reading anything into it.0 to 25
below middleIn the lower half of the frame.25 to 50
above middleIn the upper half of the frame.50 to 75
strongNear the top of the frame on this dimension.75 and above

Confidence

very thin0.00 to 0.25
The score rests on one or two indicators. Do not quote it on its own.
thin0.25 to 0.45
A minority of indicators, or evidence old enough to have moved. Read with care.
usable0.45 to 0.65
Enough evidence to compare countries, with known holes.
good0.65 and above
Most indicators observed, recent, from official or intergovernmental sources.

Capability over time

Select a dimension to see how Vietnam’s comparable evidence has moved over time. The vertical scale is the current comparison frame, from 0 to 100.

Dimension

Capability position in the current frame0 to 100

Anticipation 2016 → 2026: 14.1 to 27.7 (+13.6) over 10 years using 2 indicators

Historical values use today’s frame from 0 to 100 and a matched basket of indicators. They show movement in the available evidence, not an overall development score. Dated agenda items appear on a separate timeline and do not change the score. A missing line means the evidence does not support a comparable trend for that dimension.

What to raise

These are the lowest scores with usable evidence. Thin evidence appears below.

Anticipation

27.70.46

How capable is the country of identifying and preparing for emerging change?

Uses 2 observed indicators. +13.6 over 10 years using 2 indicators.

Highest usable scores: Denmark 98.1, Norway 97.2, Switzerland 93.4.

Related deliveries in other countries: Embrapa, a fifty-year bet on tropical agriculture (Brazil); The Delta Programme and its fund (Netherlands); Lei de Informática, a sectoral industrial policy (Brazil); CGEE, the strategic studies center (Brazil); Centre for Strategic Futures, foresight inside government (Singapore); Legally binding carbon budgets (United Kingdom); Fukushima decommissioning roadmap, a 30–40-year risk-reduction horizon (Japan); National basic-research funding allocation (China); PLANAPP and REPLAN, a centre-of-government foresight network (Portugal); Labour Market Intelligence Programme and forward skills planning (South Africa); Government Report on the Future and the parliamentary Committee for the Future (Finland); Foresight Centre at the Riigikogu (Arenguseire Keskus) (Estonia); Office of Technology Assessment, defunded and closed in 1995 (United States); Rządowe Centrum Studiów Strategicznych, liquidated in 2006 (Poland); Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) (Germany); National Assembly Futures Institute (South Korea); Federal Chancellery situation and environment analysis (Perspektivstab) (Switzerland); Senate foresight delegation (Délégation sénatoriale à la prospective) (France); Senate Commission on Future Challenges, Science, Technology and Innovation (Chile); Policy Horizons Canada, the federal foresight unit, and its 2024 disruption scan (Canada); Framtidskommissionen, the Prime Minister's time-limited future commission (Sweden); National Planning Commission foresight work for Malawi 2063 (Malawi); Bureau National de la Prospective et de la Veille Stratégique and the national prospective studies (Côte d'Ivoire); Teknologiraadet, the Norwegian Board of Technology (Norway); Teknologiraadet, the Danish Board of Technology, abolished in 2012 (Denmark); Bureau federal du Plan (Belgium); Special Secretariat of Foresight (now of Long-term Planning) (Greece); STRATA foresight for the Lietuva 2050 state progress strategy (Lithuania); Institut Royal des Etudes Stratégiques (IRES) (Morocco); Long-term Insights Briefings under the Public Service Act 2020 (New Zealand).

Missing indicators: Government foresight capacity, Long-horizon research commitments.

Trust

42.90.49

How much cooperation is possible beyond immediate personal networks?

Uses 5 observed indicators. no trend.

Highest usable scores: Denmark 94.1, Norway 91.3, Finland 89.7.

Related deliveries in other countries: Cadastro Único, the unified social registry (Brazil); Portal da Transparência, the federal open-books system (Brazil); MyData, citizen-directed data portability (South Korea); Singapore Courts' case-clearance discipline (Singapore); Civil-court clearance and the CEPEJ monitoring series (Portugal).

Missing indicators: Trust in public institutions, Court case clearance rate.

Rejected datasets: Rule of law, Control of corruption, Intentional homicide rate.

Learning

43.60.54

How effectively does the country acquire, distribute, and update knowledge?

Uses 3 observed indicators. no trend.

Highest usable scores: Singapore 84.2, Norway 83.4, New Zealand 83.

Missing indicators: Adult learning participation.

What to measure first

The evidence is too thin to manage these dimensions confidently.

Shared Purpose

0.25

To what extent can people imagine themselves as participants in a common project?

Uses 2 observed indicators.

Missing indicators: Sense of national belonging, Volunteering, Political polarisation.

Rejected datasets: Voice and accountability.

Experimentation

0.33

How easily can new approaches be attempted, tested, abandoned, and improved?

Uses 4 observed indicators.

Missing indicators: Venture deals, Firms through regulatory sandboxes, University spinouts.

Rejected datasets: Business share of R&D.

Coordination

0.40

How effectively can independent actors organize around shared objectives?

Uses 3 observed indicators.

Missing indicators: University-industry collaboration, Public-private collaboration.

Rejected datasets: Government effectiveness, Regulatory quality, Logistics performance.

What to keep watching

These dimensions score at least 50 with usable evidence.

Dimension	Score	Confidence
Adaptability	88.1	0.62
Building	75.8	0.55
Agency	61.6	0.56

Missing data

18 requested indicators have no comparable dataset, and each one lowers confidence. A gap can become an indicator when a comparable series covers at least two countries.

Dimension	Missing indicator	What it asks
Anticipation	Government foresight capacity	Existence, mandate and continuity of a national strategic foresight function.
Anticipation	Long-horizon research commitments	New competitively awarded public research grants that run for five years or longer, as a share of all new competitive public research grants awarded in the year.
Agency	Adults doing digital tasks	Share of adults who carried out a named digital task in the last three months, such as sending a message with an attached file, moving a file between devices or using a spreadsheet formula, counted one task at a time and never as a skill level.
Coordination	University-industry collaboration	Intensity of research collaboration between universities and firms.
Coordination	Public-private collaboration	Frequency and scale of joint public-private delivery of national objectives.
Trust	Trust in public institutions	Confidence in national government, courts and civil service.
Trust	Court case clearance rate	Civil and commercial cases resolved in a year as a share of cases filed in the same year.
Learning	Adult learning participation	Share of adults in formal or non-formal education and training in the last 12 months.
Experimentation	Venture deals	First venture capital rounds closed by companies based in the country in the year, per million people, counted by deal and never by amount.
Experimentation	Firms through regulatory sandboxes	Firms admitted to, and firms completing, a regulatory sandbox or controlled trial regime in the year, per million people, summed across every regulator in the country.
Experimentation	University spinouts	Companies formed to commercialise university research, per million people.
Adaptability	Disaster preparedness and recovery	Demonstrated capacity to prepare for and recover from major shocks.
Adaptability	Institutional responsiveness	Speed at which rules and public programmes are changed in response to new conditions.
Building	Large project delivery	Cost and schedule performance of major public infrastructure projects.
Building	Firm scale-up rate	Share of young firms reaching significant employment or turnover thresholds.
Shared Purpose	Sense of national belonging	Reported identification with and attachment to the national community, as distinct from pride in the nation.
Shared Purpose	Volunteering	Share of adults who volunteered time to an organisation in the last month.
Shared Purpose	Political polarisation	Degree to which political differences run along a single hostile divide.

What Vietnam built that no indicator counts

These are documented institutional changes in Vietnam that the framework records as evidence. They appear beside the score and do not change it or its confidence.

VNeID national electronic identity (Adaptability)
Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security reported more than 70.2 million electronic-identification accounts issued by January 2024, with VNeID designed to replace paper documents and authenticate public and private services against the national population database.
Vietnam Social Security health-insurance expansion (Adaptability)
Vietnam Social Security reported 95.523 million people enrolled in health insurance in 2024, covering 94.29% of the population and approaching the country's 95% universal-coverage target for 2025.
National expressway build-out in 2024 (Building)
Vietnam's Ministry of Transport reported that seven road projects were completed and opened in 2024, bringing the national expressway network to more than 2,021 kilometres.
Cat Linh–Ha Dong metro, a delayed and over-budget delivery (Building)
Vietnam's State Audit reported in 2019 that the Cat Linh–Ha Dong metro's approved investment had risen from VND8,700 billion to VND18,000 billion and that a line originally due in November 2013 was still unfinished after repeated schedule changes.
Typhoon Yagi emergency restoration (Adaptability)
After Typhoon Yagi struck northern Vietnam, the government reported on 16 September 2024 that power had returned to 92.5% of customers in affected localities and that 8,386 of 9,235 damaged mobile base stations had been restored.
Project 1956 vocational training for rural workers (Learning)
Vietnam's General Department of Vocational Education reported that, by the end of 2019, about 9.6 million rural workers had received vocational training at various levels under the Prime Minister's Project 1956, 87.2% of its 11 million target, including 5.59 million whose elementary and under-three-month courses the project subsidised, 85.5% of a 6.54 million target for 2010 to 2020.
Quang Trach to Pho Noi 500kV circuit-3 transmission line (Building)
Vietnam built the 519-kilometre Quang Trach to Pho Noi 500kV circuit-3 transmission line across nine provinces after construction began on 18 January 2024, and the Government reported it in operation on 29 August 2024 'after six months of construction', meeting the Prime Minister's deadline of completion before September, at an investment of over VND22.3 trillion.
North-South eastern expressway BOT sections, and the retreat to public investment (Coordination)
Vietnam built three component projects of the 2017-2020 North-South eastern expressway phase, 178 km at about VND 25,343 billion, as BOT public-private partnerships, then financed all ten 2021-2025 component projects on the Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City stretch as public investment, and in June 2025 the Ministry of Construction reported that it had asked the Prime Minister to keep widening the corridor with public investment money, leaving PPP as a later option once tolls were collected.

Contribute

Fill a gap, file evidence or challenge an indicator at github.com/envisioning/national-capability-benchmark. The docs explain the method and decisions.

🇻🇳Vietnam