The high growth target for 2026 not only sets requirements for pace but also calls for improved growth quality. As traditional economic drivers are gradually being reinforced and need more room to create a stronger breakthrough, the digital economy is increasingly becoming an important driver of the new growth model. Beyond helping raise labor productivity, expand consumer markets, and renew governance methods, the digital economy is also creating additional development momentum for enterprises, cooperatives, and business households, gradually forming a new development space for the local economy.
Digital transformation enters business life
In 2025, the share of value added by the digital economy in the province’s GRDP reached 29.53%, ranking second among 34 provinces and cities nationwide. This figure shows that the digital economy has become an important component of the province’s economic growth. Notably, Thai Nguyen Province has rolled out the digital economy closely aligned with the needs of enterprises, business households, and residents. Along with focusing on large-scale models, the locality is simultaneously expanding digital transformation to traditional markets, commercial streets, cooperatives, and small individual business households.
Phan Dinh Phung Ward Youth Union assisting and guiding business households at Cho Thai Market with digital transformation in sales
At Cho Thai Market, Phan Dinh Phung Ward, the sight of residents scanning QR codes to make payments has now become familiar. Many business households have been supported in setting up cashless payment, creating online sales accounts, and learning to livestream product showcases.
According to many business households at Cho Thai Market, customer numbers used to be limited when traditional payment methods were mainly used. However, since being guided to sell via social media and adopt electronic payment, business operations have become more convenient, both creating utility for customers and helping small traders expand their markets. Many customers in other provinces and cities can now easily place orders and pay online, contributing to higher business efficiency.
In recent years, Thai Nguyen Province has implemented many programs to support enterprises, cooperatives, and business households in promoting digital transformation in production and business activities. In particular, the province has focused on boosting trade promotion and connecting the consumption of Thai Nguyen products on e-commerce platforms, helping expand markets and improve the competitiveness of local products. Notably, the “National E-Commerce Week and Thai Nguyen Online Shopping Day - Online Friday 2025” program attracted numerous enterprises, supermarkets, cooperatives, and consumers across the province to participate, creating a positive ripple effect in the development of digital commerce.
Notably, in November 2025, Thai Nguyen Provincial People's Committee coordinated with the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Department of E-Commerce and Digital Economy) and the Ministry of Science and Technology, together with digital technology enterprises and banks, to organize a conference on implementing a pilot plan to support digital transformation for stores and wholesale and retail business households across the province. This large-scale digital transformation support program targets nearly 20,000 business households throughout the province. The selection of Thai Nguyen as a pilot locality was assessed as an important step, helping create a foundation for replicating the model nationwide. Beyond changing sales methods, digital transformation has also gradually changed the business mindset of many small traders. The use of e-invoices, managing orders via smartphones, and reaching customers on digital platforms have made business operations increasingly transparent, professional, and effective. According to statistics, the province has so far supported nearly 6,000 wholesale and retail business households in carrying out digital transformation. This is considered an important foundation for expanding the digital economy in a comprehensive, inclusive direction, rather than focusing only on the large-enterprise sector.
Thai Nguyen Province Cooperative Alliance coordinating to organize a training conference guiding the creation of digital shopping baskets on the Facebook platform and product registration and sales procedures on the Thai Nguyen E-Market
E-commerce opens additional sales channels for local products
From these efforts, e-commerce is becoming a bright spot in the development of Thai Nguyen’s digital economy. In 2025, total e-commerce sales in the province are estimated at VND 1,579 billion. The province is also one of the pioneering localities to build a provincial-level storefront on the Shopee platform under the “Thai Nguyen Products Storefront” model. The formation of a shared “digital destination” for local products is helping many enterprises and cooperatives expand their markets without having to invest heavily in traditional distribution systems.
Ms. Dao Thanh Hao, Director of Hao Dat Tea Cooperative, Tan Cuong Commune, said: In recent years, with support in building storefronts on e-commerce platforms and guidance on promotion and livestream selling, the Cooperative’s new customer base has grown quite quickly. What matters is that local products have additional opportunities to access domestic and foreign markets at a reasonable cost.
Hao Dat Tea Cooperative is one of the pioneering units in applying science and technology to production, processing, and product distribution. Many of the Cooperative’s products have achieved national 5-star OCOP certification, affirming the quality and reputation of Tan Cuong tea. Along with that, the Cooperative is promoting digitization in product management, processing, and traceability, ensuring transparent information on quality and production processes. This approach not only enhances product reputation but also creates a competitive advantage, meeting the increasingly high demands of domestic and international markets.
Hao Dat Tea Cooperative staff livestreaming product sales
Along with Hao Dat Tea Cooperative, many enterprises and cooperatives across the province have applied automation and digitized their production processes, data management, and operations on digital platforms. In agriculture, education, healthcare, and public administration, digital platforms are also being used increasingly widely, creating additional growth momentum and improving management and service efficiency.
Technology infrastructure creates a foundation for development
One notable point is that Thai Nguyen’s digital economy is not separate from its orientation toward high-tech industrial development. This is a distinct advantage for the province at present, especially as industrial parks, concentrated information technology zones, and data infrastructure projects are gradually taking shape.
In Van Xuan Ward, where many large industrial projects are concentrated, especially the Samsung complex, the development of digital infrastructure and high-tech industry is creating a new look for the locality. The ward currently has Yen Binh Industrial Park and is investing in the construction of Yen Binh Industrial Park 2 and the Yen Binh Concentrated Information Technology Zone. With a total area of about 289 hectares, this area has attracted 23 FDI projects with total registered capital of over USD 8.5 billion; the Samsung complex alone has invested over USD 7 billion, generating jobs for more than 70,000 workers. The high-tech industrial development process is creating favorable conditions for the locality to promote the digital economy, digital services, and build a technology-skilled workforce.
The Yen Binh Concentrated Information Technology Zone is being developed and is expected to become the nucleus driving the province’s digital technology industry in the coming period. The project is planned for an area of about 200 hectares, with an estimated workforce of nearly 19,200 people. In parallel, the province is also preparing to invest in a Data Center with a Korean partner, expected to have a minimum capacity of 20 MW. Once operational, these projects will help attract technology enterprises and open up opportunities to form an innovation ecosystem, data services, and a digital workforce.
These are important foundations for Thai Nguyen to support digital transformation, develop the digital economy, attract high-tech FDI, and raise its position in the national digital infrastructure network. In addition, the province has begun piloting knowledge-economy models linked to creative technology. The digital film studio project featuring the animated film “Cricket: Adventures to the Muddy Hamlet”, which earned revenue of about VND 20 billion, is an example showing that digital technology can expand into the cultural industry and digital content sector.
Hao Dat Tea Cooperative installing an automatic irrigation control system
Despite these advantages, digital economy development still poses no small number of challenges. Many small enterprises, cooperatives, and business households still lack the human resources and capacity to invest systematically in digital transformation. Building data infrastructure, ensuring information security, and developing a high-quality digital workforce also require more time, suitable approaches, and ongoing support from all levels and sectors.
However, with an orientation that places residents and businesses at the center, implementing digital transformation from practical tasks in production and business to developing high-tech infrastructure, Thai Nguyen is gradually expanding new growth space. As the digital economy is no longer an unfamiliar concept but is present in every sales transaction, every production process, and every governance activity, that is also when new growth momentum is formed more sustainably, helping raise the province’s competitiveness and development quality in the new period.