Talent visas – “Key” to Dong Nai’s development in new era

According to Dr. Nguyen Huu Hoang, a lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics Region II, as Dong Nai City enters a new development phase from April 30, 2026, the nearly 330-year-old locality will need far more than just investment capital, infrastructure and industrial land reserves. What it urgently requires and still lacks is world-class talent in strategic high-tech fields such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence (AI) and green energy.

Dr. Nguyen Huu Hoang conducts training sessions and shares scientific research methods and international-standard journal writing practices with Vietnamese students, master’s students, and doctoral candidates at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia. Photo: Phuong Hang

In an interview with Dong Nai Newspaper and Radio, Television, Dr. Nguyen Huu Hoang argued that attracting world-class talent will require Dong Nai City to undertake an institutional revolution rather than merely administrative reform.

A reality-based perspective

Dr. Nguyen Huu Hoang, how do you assess talent attraction efforts in Vietnam today?

– At a recent national conference organized by Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City, I raised a question: Vietnam’s GDP expanded by 8.02% in 2025, placing it among the fastest-growing economies in the world; foreign direct investment (FDI) disbursement reached US$27.6 billion, the highest level in five years; and global technology giants such as NVIDIA, Samsung, Intel and Amkor have all established a presence in Vietnam. Yet, in the IMD World Talent Ranking 2025, Singapore ranked seventh, Hong Kong fourth, Malaysia climbed to 25th place, while Vietnam did not make it into the top 70.

The problem does not lie in a lack of incentive or recruitment policies. Rather, Vietnam needs stronger institutional capacity and a more strategic approach to attracting talent.

Having spent many years studying and conducting research in Russia, could you share some insights into Russia’s approach to talent attraction?

Dr. Nguyen Huu Hoang

– Russia is a country that produced figures such as Mendeleev, Lomonosov and Sakharov, and is a scientific powerhouse in its own right. But it has also struggled at times with severe brain drain. A notable response came in December 2025, when President Putin signed Decree No. 883 launching Russia’s first Talent Visa Program. When a major power acknowledges that it is losing momentum in the global race for talent and acts urgently, the issue clearly transcends national boundaries.

Vietnam is currently projected to face a shortfall of around 35,000 semiconductor engineers against its 2030 targets, while the university system is only able to meet less than 20% of annual demand. The General Director of Marvell Vietnam once frankly noted that Vietnam’s advantage lies in its young engineers with strong foundations in mathematics and physics, but that advantage will disappear unless action is taken immediately.

As one of Vietnam’s leading semiconductor manufacturing hubs, Dong Nai cannot afford to remain on the sidelines of this challenge. The shortage of high-quality talent is not merely an issue for individual enterprises - it is a question of the competitiveness of the entire locality.

Proposals for attracting talent

In your view, what should Dong Nai do to create sufficient momentum for talent attraction?

– When placed within Dong Nai’s current context, the challenge of attracting talent becomes more urgent than ever.

The Resolution of the first Congress of the Dong Nai Provincial Party Committee (now the City Party Committee) for the 2025-2030 tenure has set the goal of transforming Dong Nai into a modern industrial center, a hub for high-quality services, a civilized urban area and one of the key growth engines of the Southeastern region. Since officially becoming a city, adopting a two-tier local government model and overseeing 95 newly established communes and wards, Dong Nai has entered a fundamentally new phase of development. That space is not only broader in terms of administrative boundaries but also more demanding in terms of workforce quality.

Dong Nai City is currently one of the country’s leading manufacturing and processing localities, home to numerous industrial parks and FDI enterprises operating in electronics, semiconductors and high-tech components. The presence of corporations such as Amkor Technology and semiconductor supply chains in Dong Nai is no longer a future prospect but a present reality.

However, to move up the value ladder of the global production chain, shifting from assembly and processing toward design and research and development, Dong Nai will require internationally recognized experts.

Attracting world-class talent requires more than culture, cuisine or affordable living costs. The decisive factor is institutional quality.

In your opinion, what lessons from the global competition for talent could Dong Nai City consider?

– Drawing from international experience and Vietnam’s development needs, I believe the country should design a dedicated talent visa system called “V-Talent Visa (Vietnam-Talent Visa)”, built upon four pillars:

First, institutionalizing a special visa category by proposing that the National Assembly include a “Talent Visa” in the 16th legislature’s legislative agenda, targeting three groups: academic experts (holders of patents, international awards or professorial titles); economic specialists earning at least five to seven times the average income level; and professionals in priority sectors such as semiconductors, AI and green energy.

Second, piloting a sandbox policy by leveraging special local mechanisms to test a “semiconductor visa” in high-tech zones, featuring long-term residency privileges, work permit exemptions and automatic work authorization for spouses of visa holders.

Dong Nai is currently standing before a “golden moment” of development, with unprecedented opportunities, position and development space. The real question is not whether Dong Nai needs talent, but rather how prepared Dong Nai is to welcome talent.

Dr. NGUYEN HUU HOANG, lecturer at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics Region II

Third, developing a “National one-stop integrated digital corridor” by establishing a specialized public service portal for talent, with a commitment to completing identity verification, e-visa issuance, tax registration and insurance procedures within 72 hours - a dramatic improvement over current timelines.

Fourth, creating an integrated policy ecosystem, including consideration of a preferential flat tax rate of 10–15% during the first five years for V-Talent Visa holders, alongside building mechanisms to track tangible contributions and prevent “phantom visas,” whereby specialists use Vietnam merely as a transit base rather than genuinely settling and contributing over the long term.

Although these proposals are national in scope, their implementation would take place at the local level. Within that broader picture, Dong Nai City could fully assume a pioneering role.

Resolution No. 24-NQ/TW dated October 7, 2022 of the Politburo on socio-economic development and national defense-security for the Southeastern region through 2030, with a vision toward 2045, identifies Dong Nai as one of the region’s major growth poles.

Building upon that advantage, together with the orientation of developing Dong Nai into a modern industrial center as set out in the Resolution of the first Congress of the Dong Nai Provincial Party Committee (now the City Party Committee), the creation of a Dong Nai-branded “talent ecosystem” is not a distant ambition but an inevitable requirement of practical development.

With millions of workers and a sizeable community of foreign experts employed across its industrial parks, Dong Nai already offers a practical environment for testing talent-attraction policies. What is needed now is for the city to proactively work with central ministries and agencies to pilot tailored mechanisms aligned with its unique characteristics: a strong manufacturing base, an ongoing transition toward high technology, and a gateway role linking Ho Chi Minh City with the wider Southeastern region. These are advantages not every locality possesses.

Policies to attract international talent and policies to cultivate domestic talent must function like the two rails of a railway track - remove one, and the entire system risks going off course.

By P.Hang – Translated by M.Nguyet, Thu Ha