Vietnam’s 5G Network Covers 93.4% of Population as Science and Technology Funding Rises
Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology reports progress in science and technology investment, telecommunications infrastructure and digital applications nearly two years after Resolution 57 was adopted. By the end of the third quarter of 2026, Vietnam had 60,034 5G base stations covering 93.4% of the population. Two AI platforms for public officials remained in a trial phase.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Science and Technology said the country has made progress in science, technology, innovation and digital transformation in the nearly two years since it began implementing Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW. Some technology products researched and developed by Vietnamese companies have entered production and reached domestic and international markets. The government has also increased funding for these fields: VND 75 trillion in 2025 and VND 95 trillion in 2026, with VND 120 trillion projected for 2027.
On the institutional front, Vietnam’s National Assembly adopted Resolution No. 193/2025/QH15 to pilot special mechanisms. The Ministry of Science and Technology said it had led the drafting and submission of, or issued under its own authority, 195 legal documents. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, Vietnam ranked 43rd among 139 economies in the 2026 Global Innovation Index, up one place from 2025.
Telecommunications infrastructure continued to expand. According to Ookla, Vietnam’s mobile internet speed rose from 50.9 Mbps in April 2024 to about 230 Mbps in September 2026, moving from 58th to eighth globally. By the end of the third quarter of 2026, Vietnam had 60,034 5G base stations covering 93.4% of the population; it had 27.2 million 5G subscribers in August 2026.
Vietnam’s mobile internet speed rose from 50.9 Mbps in April 2024 to about 230 Mbps in September 2026.（VietVance）
In research and industry, Vietnam produced 26,107 scientific papers indexed by Scopus in the first 10 months of 2026, exceeding the total for all of 2025. Over the same period, revenue in Vietnam’s digital technology industry was estimated at US$254.6 billion and exports at US$212 billion, up 53% and 46.2%, respectively, from a year earlier.
Digital government applications also advanced. As of September 30, 2026, 37 of the 79 shared national digital platforms were operating and 12 were in trials. Two platforms to assist public officials, built on Vietnamese-language large language models developed by Vietnamese companies, were being offered free on a trial basis to 24 central ministries and agencies and 34 localities. As of November 2, 2026, about 761,000 accounts had been created across the two platforms.
Source: VietVance
