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The move aims to resolve urgent difficulties and bottlenecks, establish a favorable legal framework, and unlock resources for science, technology, and innovation activities.

The Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) on October 1 forwarded an appraisal dossier for a draft decree amending and supplementing several articles of the decrees detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on Science, Technology, and Innovation to the Ministry of Justice for review.

The draft aims to amend and supplement five Government decrees promulgated in 2025, including decrees 262, 263, 265, 267, and 268.

The objective of the draft is to resolve urgent difficulties and bottlenecks, establish a favorable legal framework, and unlock resources for science, technology, and innovation activities.

Its core focus centers on cutting or simplifying administrative procedures, ensuring synchronization and consistency with the 2025 Law on Public Employees, and addressing pressing hurdles in carrying out science, technology, and innovation initiatives.

The most notable change involves revisions and additions to regulations governing innovation tasks under Decree No. 268.

According to the MST, feedback from credit institutions and enterprises during the implementation of interest-rate subsidy programs indicated that current disbursement procedures interfere with the debt collection workflows applied by credit institutions. As a result, many lenders have been reluctant to participate.

Furthermore, delayed funding disbursements from the State Treasury could jeopardize enterprises' ability to fulfill their debt obligations to credit institutions on time.

Consequently, the MST proposed amending and supplementing Clause 8, Article 22 of Decree No 268/2025/ND-CP. Under the proposal, the Fund would proactively transfer support funds into a "dedicated account" at the relevant credit institution according to the debt collection schedule, releasing the subsidy payments based on valid on-time debt collection vouchers. This ensures that the lenders' standard debt collection processes remain undisturbed while safeguarding enterprises' repayment obligations.

Additionally, the draft introduces a clause stating: "The Fund shall suspend interest rate subsidies on loans during any period in which the enterprise incurs overdue debt." In such cases, the enterprise must pay the full interest due to the credit institution under the signed credit agreement.

The MST also noted that Decree No 268 and Decree No 267 do not yet clearly distinguish between science and technology tasks and innovation tasks.

In practice, this lack of clarity has led ministries, sectors, local authorities, organizations, and enterprises to interpret the provisions differently, causing substantial friction in identifying, approving, executing, and managing these tasks.

Market growth driven mainly by peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions and cross-border flows.

Vietnam recorded an estimated $122.2 billion in crypto asset activity between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026, ranking fourth in the Central and Southern Asia, Southeast Asia and Oceania (CSAO) region, according to data from Chainalysis, a US-based blockchain analytics and digital asset data company.

Vietnam ranked behind Singapore, with $284.1 billion in activity, Australia with $173.1 billion and India with $135 billion.

The data showed that Vietnam’s Utility Index, which measures activity related to the use of crypto assets, increased 127% from the previous period, while its Financial Index declined 5%. This suggests that market growth was driven mainly by peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions and cross-border flows rather than institutional financial channels.

Chainalysis also reported strong P2P activity in Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand. The three countries recorded a combined 5.4 million domestic and cross-border P2P transfers, accounting for 14.4% of global P2P transactions, despite representing only 2.5% of the global crypto economy by value.

Vietnam’s stablecoin activity included $6.9 billion in domestic transactions and $10.5 billion in cross-border transactions.

Meanwhile, crypto asset activity through centralised exchanges (CEXs) in Vietnam reached approximately $69.9 billion, equivalent to 57% of the country’s total crypto asset activity of $122.2 billion during the period.

The figures indicate the significant role of retail and P2P transactions in Vietnam’s crypto market, while activity through institutional financial channels remains comparatively smaller.

Production in Vietnam continued to rise markedly, and firms were more optimistic in the outlook for the coming year, said Andrew Harker, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

"Based on the historical relationship between the PMI and official data, the manufacturing sector should continue to make a solid contribution to GDP growth in the third quarter of 2026, with the potential for growth to strengthen further should the international environment improve," Harker wrote in a S&P release on Thursday.

The S&P Global Vietnam Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) dropped to 51.9 in September from August's reading of 53.3, thereby signalling a smaller improvement in the health of the sector at the end of the third quarter.

While the manufacturing sector remained in growth territory in September, data showed that the international environment limited the pace of expansion. New export orders were down, the war in the Middle East caused further rises in the cost of fuel and oil, and international shipping delays contributed to longer supplier delivery times, S&P Global Market Intelligence stated.

Softer growth of new orders meant that firms were able to keep on top of workloads despite a second successive monthly reduction in employment. Meanwhile, input costs continued to rise markedly, but the rate of output price inflation eased again, in part due to competitive pressures.

Business conditions have now strengthened in each of the past 15 months. A further marked rise in manufacturing production was registered in September, continuing the sequence of expansion which began in May 2025. The rate of growth eased from that seen in August, however.

A further marked increase in purchasing activity was recorded in September as firms secured inputs to help support output growth. The use of materials in the production process meant that stocks of inputs continued to fall.

Manufacturers also expressed a desire to draw down holdings of finished products, and used the prompt shipment of goods to customers to achieve this. In fact, stocks of finished goods decreased at the sharpest pace since the survey began in March 2011.

Expected improvements in market conditions supported confidence that output will rise over the coming year. The planned launch of new products was also behind the optimistic outlook, with sentiment reaching its highest since February.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on September 23 raised its forecast for Vietnam’s economic growth in 2026 to 7.8% from 7.2% in July, the highest in ASEAN, but warned that rapid investment and credit growth could amplify financial vulnerabilities and narrow policy space. The bank projected 7.6% growth for 2027, also the highest in ASEAN, up from 7% in July.

Singaporean bank UOB late on September 18 raised its 2026 GDP growth forecast for Vietnam to 8.5%, projecting that growth momentum would continue to be driven by improving domestic demand, investment inflows into the manufacturing and technology sectors, and large-scale infrastructure projects currently underway across the country.

On April 24, the National Assembly, Vietnam's legislature, set a 2026-2030 agenda targeting at least 10% average annual GDP growth.