Hanoi Aims for Double-Digit Growth by Boosting Digital Economy

Hanoi is implementing a series of policies to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in adopting artificial intelligence (AI), e-commerce, and digital transformation, with the expectation of narrowing the gap between technology and the market and creating a double-digit GRDP growth momentum. Statistical data shows that in the first six months of 2026, Hanoi's GRDP increased by 8.22%, the highest growth rate in many years. However, to achieve the double-digit growth target, Hanoi needs a GRDP growth rate of over 13% in the second half of the year. This goal requires the capital not to grow through conventional methods, but to innovate traditional growth drivers and create new management capabilities by integrating science and technology into all economic sectors to enhance labor productivity, promote technology products, the digital economy, and innovation. Hanoi previously set a target for the digital economy to account for at least 22% of GRDP by the end of 2026, while the national target is 14%-15%. In the first six months, the digital economy already accounted for 16.7% of GRDP. This means that from now until the end of the year, the capital's task is to increase this ratio to over 26%. However, this task is not easy to accomplish if the capital lacks data and solutions for the business community to break through together. Mr. Cu Ngoc Trang, Director of the Hanoi Department of Science and Technology, stated that there is still a certain gap between commerce and science and technology. According to Mr. Trang, when technology is on one side and the market on the other, what is missing is the bridge in between to connect them, and Hanoi is striving to build this "bridge" to narrow the current gap between technology and local businesses. Specifically, the city has assigned leaders of communes and wards to conduct live streaming sales of OCOP (One Commune One Product) and handicraft products at least once a week. Currently, the capital has 221 science and technology enterprises, over 1,000 innovation enterprises, and over 11,000 digital technology enterprises. Hanoi's e-commerce index in 2025 reached 74.7%, continuing to lead the country. Thus, Hanoi has sufficient technological foundations to support and promote trade. However, there are still bottlenecks that need to be addressed: How to connect a specific business problem with appropriate technological solutions, a sufficiently large resource, and a unit to accompany businesses to the end; and how to solve the problem of having enough technological supply but not yet accompanying businesses, despite the large market demand... Therefore, according to Mr. Trang, it is necessary to build an ecosystem to bring technology into businesses. First, businesses need to take their business problems as the starting point and take management innovation as the most important foundation. Each business needs to accurately identify its growth bottlenecks to choose appropriate technologies. Next, focus on commercialization support, bringing more research results into production and business. At the same time, turn business problems back into orders for institutes, universities, and technology companies. In that ecosystem, businesses state the problem, technology units provide solutions, banks and investment funds provide financial resources, industry associations play the role of connection, and state agencies perform the role of removing institutional barriers.