According to international observers, as the first 10 months of 2026 drew to a close, state-run media continued to sing the praises of a macroeconomy reaching unprecedented heights.
With a GDP growth rate of 9.01% in the first nine months of 2026—ranking among the world’s highest—and total import and export turnover nearing the 888 billion USD mark,
Coupled with an infrastructure system featuring expansive expressways and mega-airports nearing completion, Vietnam’s national landscape appears full of promise and vitality for the future.
However, according to observers, stepping away from the news reports to confront the reality of people’s daily lives immediately reveals a stark reality.
Street-side shops along major commercial thoroughfares are simultaneously putting up “for sale” signs. Meanwhile, a wave of layoffs is sweeping through the private sector.
This is compounded by a frozen real estate market and a record-high increase in the number of businesses dissolving over the past nine months. Specifically, the number of businesses that have dissolved surged by 18.8 percent compared to the same period last year.
This seemingly absurd disparity raises serious questions about the distortions in the development model being implemented by the political leadership in Ba Dinh.
The dazzling macroeconomic indicators have been “manufactured” by a technocratic apparatus with an extremely rigid management mindset, where every economic and social issue is transformed into “special projects” aimed at tightening controls and collecting taxes to the very end.
With the support of high technology and artificial intelligence (AI), the authorities have thoroughly combed every nook and cranny of the private economy—from e-commerce taxes and lump-sum taxes to cross-border debts and the informal economy.
The nature of this campaign no longer resembles conventional economic regulation but is deeply rooted in the police force’s mindset of encirclement and exhaustive extraction, imposed on the entire economy.
Notably, while domestic businesses are struggling under severe strain, tax revenue from this sector has risen abnormally high.
According to the Ministry of Finance, total budget revenue for the full year of 2026 is estimated to exceed the budget by 20.8 percent, with revenue from the private sector and individual households in the first nine months of the year having increased by 31 percent, equivalent to 500 nghìn tỷ đồng.
The modest capital flow that once served as the lifeblood sustaining millions of small merchants, self-employed workers, and small businesses in the private sector has now been “stripped bare” to channel resources toward infrastructure projects nationwide.
This is seen as a major gamble aimed at “building a nest to welcome the eagles,” one that is being carried out at the expense of the vital resources essential to the nation’s economy and people’s livelihoods.
Meanwhile, registered foreign direct investment (FDI) over the first nine months exceeded 50 billion USD, yet this capital has yet to enter the economy.
While the upper echelons are preoccupied with macroeconomic accumulation, the grassroots level is immediately being drained of its lifeblood. The endurance of the people and over 95% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has hit rock bottom.
Furthermore, the proposal to raise the maximum administrative fine to 1.5 billion VND for individuals and 3 billion VND for organizations—coupled with extreme measures such as cutting off electricity, water, or internet access—is the final blow to the people’s livelihoods, which are already on the brink of collapse.
According to experts in public administration, a fine of billions of dong in a society with low incomes like Vietnam’s does not improve discipline; rather, it suffocates society within a defensive economic system.
Infrastructure and large-scale projects are, after all, merely the skeletal framework; it is private enterprises and workers who are the lifeblood nourishing the nation’s body.
A political system cannot be healthy if its framework is built upon the blood, sweat, and exhaustion of the very people who are creating it.
Trà My – Thoibao.de
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