Vietnam opens National Innovation Day 2026 with Samsung, Meta among exhibitors
Held at the National Convention Center, this year’s event carries the theme “Innovation: a driving force for the development of the whole society.”
Minister of Science and Technology Vu Hai Quan said innovation begins with looking at familiar problems from new perspectives, asking questions and finding better ways of doing things.
“An innovative nation is built by people who know how to innovate and organizations that create the conditions for innovation,” Quan said. “Great aspirations must be realized through concrete, persistent work that delivers results.”
The exhibition at Vietnam’s National Innovation Day 2026 in Hanoi on Oct. 4, 2026. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy
Na Ki Hong, general director of Samsung Vietnam, said the contribution of foreign-invested companies should be measured not only by factory size or export revenue, but also by how much they help strengthen domestic technological capabilities.
He said the key is to have more Vietnamese engineers involved in core R&D and more local companies capable of meeting global production and technology standards.
“When Vietnamese engineers directly solve an R&D problem and the result is used in global products, that is when technological capability is truly formed and retained,” Na said.
He added that Vietnam already has a large high-tech manufacturing base and should now focus on increasing the share of value created domestically.
The event features forums on science, technology, innovation and digital transformation, along with the Science Initiative awards ceremony.
The Ministry of Science and Technology is also set to release the 2026 Provincial Innovation Index, which measures innovation capacity across localities, and its annual innovation report.
The government designated Oct. 1 as National Innovation Day in 2024, with the Ministry of Science and Technology coordinating activities with ministries and local authorities.
This year’s activities in Hanoi run from Sept. 25 to Oct. 5.
According to the ministry, the event aims to make innovation a broader driver of economic and social development, in line with the Politburo’s Resolution 57 on science, technology, innovation and digital transformation.
