Improving national competitiveness

Education - the foundation of human resources

Resolution No. 71-NQ/TW (NQ71), dated August 22, 2025 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in education and training development, clearly established education as the top national policy, playing a key role in the country's rapid and sustainable development strategy, closely linked to the goal of building high-quality human resources and improving national competitiveness.

A core point of NQ71 is the unified thinking of considering investment in education not as simple welfare expenditure, but as development investment. Education is identified as the direct foundation for economic growth, determining labor productivity, innovation and position of Vietnam in the knowledge economy and international integration.

The Resolution emphasizes that educational development must be closely linked to comprehensive human development, considering people as both a goal and a driving force for sustainable development. Education quality therefore becomes a decisive factor in the quality of human resources, thereby deciding the quality of growth and long-term competitiveness of the economy.

Regarding resources, NQ71 affirms the responsibility of the State in prioritizing investment in education, ensuring a high proportion of budget expenditure for education, while innovating the mechanism for allocating and using resources in an effective manner, linking investment with quality and output results. This is a fundamental requirement to overcome the situation of scattered investment, lack of focus, and not being closely linked to training quality.

A consistent content of the Resolution is the requirement to improve the quality of education, considering this a key step for education to truly become a driving force for development. Education must shift strongly from imparting knowledge to developing capacity, skills, creative thinking and lifelong learning ability, meeting the requirements of the labor market and the scientific and technological revolution.

In the context of increasingly fierce international competition, NQ71 affirms that education is a decisive factor to improve national competitiveness.A high-quality education system will create advantages for Vietnam in attracting investment, developing science and technology and participating deeply in the global value chain.
With a long-term vision, NQ71 not only solves immediate problems in the education system, but also lays the foundation for a national human-based development strategy, aiming to build a modern, integrated, high-quality Vietnamese education, meeting the aspiration to develop a strong and prosperous country in the middle of the 21st century.

Health - improve productivity and quality of life

Along with education, Resolution No. 72-NQ/TW (NQ72) on "Some solutions to strengthen protection, care and improve people's health in the new situation" continues to affirm an important shift in thinking: Health is not only a field of treatment, but must proactively prevent diseases early; not only a social cost, but an investment in labor productivity and the quality of human resources.

The Resolution clearly identifies: People's health is the center, the goal and also the driving force for national development. Specific goals on average life expectancy, healthy living years until 2030 and vision for 2045 not only have statistical significance, but directly reflect the quality of life, health and working capacity of tens of millions of people.

A highlight of NQ72 is the identification of science, technology and innovation as the main driving force to build a modern, autonomous and integrated Vietnamese healthcare system. Prioritizing the research and production of drugs, vaccines, biological products and high-tech medical equipment, towards forming a National Pharmaceutical Industrial Park by 2030, not only serving health care but also opening up the development direction of a high-tech economic sector.

In reality, Vietnam has mastered many modern medical techniques such as domestic vaccine production, application of genetic technology in cancer treatment, implementation of specialized resuscitation techniques, advanced endoscopic surgery, and robot surgery. These advances contribute to reducing treatment costs, helping people, especially workers, access high-quality medical services in the country.

Digital transformation is identified by NQ72 as a strategic breakthrough in people's health care. The construction of a national health database, electronic health records, electronic medical records, electronic prescriptions and health insurance connections will help save time, costs, improve management efficiency and quality of health services, especially for people in remote areas.

The Resolution also emphasizes promoting the strengths of traditional medicine associated with modern science and technology, through digitalizing prescriptions, building a database of medicinal herbs and traceability, opening up a direction for sustainable development of the medicinal herb economy.

In particular, Resolution 72 affirms that people are the decisive factor for the success of all health reforms. Training, treatment and development of a team of doctors with expertise, ethics and technological capacity, especially at the grassroots level and in disadvantaged areas, is identified as a key task.

Overall, Resolutions 71 and 72 are not only orientations for the two fields of education and health, but together form an important pillar of the new growth model - a development model based on people, knowledge and health.

When education creates high-quality human resources and health care ensures a healthy workforce, Vietnam will have a solid foundation for rapid and sustainable growth and enhance national competitiveness in the new development stage.

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