The US Agency for International Development, Bureau for Asia, Vietnam Field Office has a requirement for the Digital Workforce for Innovation activity in the Economic Growth and Trade sector.

Vietnam has been a global economic star over the last 30 years, during which it has experienced one of the fastest GDP growth rates in the world. From 1990 to 2021, Vietnam’s GDP per capita grew at an average annual rate of 5.3 percent, faster than any other economy in the region, except China. Today, Vietnam needs to increase productivity of the domestic private sector to meet its target of becoming a high income country by 2045. In order to achieve the ambitious 2045 target, the domestic private sector will need to sustain an average GDP growth of 5.9 percent per year. The role of private sector led productivity growth will be especially important as the country’s historic sources of growth are gradually losing steam: capital accumulation is constrained by relatively low public investment due to a conservative fiscal policy and implementation challenges, while the contribution of labor supply is also declining due to an aging population. This leaves private sector led productivity growth, in addition to further private sector capital accumulation, as the key growth engine going forward. (World Bank, 2023).

The term “Industrial Revolution 4.0” or 4IR was popularized by Prof. Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum. Broadly, 4IR refers to technological innovations built on systems of interconnected components that potentially substitute human decision-making. These “smart” and connected systems leverage vast arrays of core, enabling, and application technologies to sense, predict, and interact with the physical work to make real-time production decisions. 4IR is expected to harness and leverage technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, the Internet of things, robots, drones, three-dimensional printing, blockchain, smart production, smart cities, renewable energy) to drive a technological paradigm shift in economic behavior and organization. It is broadly anticipated that 4IR will result in disbursed automated manufacturing, digital integration, competitive niche markets and local production, process decentralizations, increased vertical and horizontal integration of value chain actors, systems’ self-correction, and heightened demand signal responsiveness. In sum, it is anticipated that 4IR will further increase firm-level and countrylevel total factor productivity by applying systems of existing and new technologies to reduce economic frictions.

Support the GVN’s efforts to strengthen Vietnam’s innovation ecosystem to drive the commercialization of 4IR innovations and contribute to fulfilling the GVN’s NS/4IR.

Specific Objectives:

• Business enabling environment improved to facilitate commercializing and implementing innovative 4IR technologies or processes;
• A dynamic innovation ecosystem strengthened to serve the needs of its constituents and advances innovations to drive economic growth.
• The Ministry of Planning and Investment’s (MPI) National Innovation Center’s (NIC) capabilities developed to facilitate the development of Vietnam’s innovation ecosystem.

Key Components:

• Component 1. Enhance public-private dialogue to identify and resolve challenges and constraints to commercialize or implement innovative 4IR technologies or processes, investing in GOBs and increasing firms’ productivity.
• Component 2: Strengthen the interconnections between actors engaged in innovating 4IR technologies or processes, and those furnishing related resources.
• Component 3: Develop the capabilities of the NIC to facilitate the development of Vietnam’s innovation ecosystem.