A performance of ca tru singing in Hanoi's Old Quarter. — VNA/VNS Photo
HANOI: Vietnam has set out an ambitious roadmap to sharpen its global profile through to mid-century, with Deputy Prime Minister Mai Văn Chính recently signing Decision No. 173/QĐ-TTg approving the Strategy for Promoting Vietnam's Image Overseas for the 2026–2030 period, with a vision to 2045.
The strategy aims to promote Vietnam's image overseas in a comprehensive manner to enhance international awareness of the country, its people, culture and development achievements.
It seeks to ensure that overseas communication and promotion of Vietnam's image are proactive, comprehensive, unified and effective, thereby strengthening awareness, goodwill and trust among the international community towards Vietnam, its people, culture and development achievements.
The strategy contributes to affirming Vietnam's position, prestige, national identity and competitiveness in the region and the world, mitigating the impact of information that negatively affects Vietnam's image and creating a favourable environment for expanding international cooperation, attracting investment, promoting tourism, advancing socio-economic development, strengthening national defence and security and deepening sustainable international integration.
By 2045, the strategy aims to build Vietnam into one of Asia’s leading countries in terms of national branding and image, striving to rank among the top three in Asean and top 30 globally on the soft power index.
Vietnam's image is to be clearly recognised as that of a developed, humane, innovative, responsible and trustworthy nation: a symbol of peace, stability, national solidarity and cooperation for development in the region and the world.
Vietnam is to become an attractive destination for tourism, investment, creativity and international cultural exchange, with the goal of welcoming around 70 million international visitors annually and effectively attracting high-quality foreign direct investment, contributing to the country’s aspiration to become a developed, high-income nation by 2045.
Identifying the key pillars shaping Vietnam's image
The strategy underscores the need for a strong renewal of thinking, along with a high level of unity in awareness and action regarding the role of promoting Vietnam's image overseas.
This includes building consensus across the entire political system on the importance of overseas communication and promotion of Vietnam's image, treating it as a comprehensive political, diplomatic, cultural and economic task that requires close coordination among ministries, sectors, localities, media agencies, businesses, the public at home and the Vietnamese community abroad.
It calls for a shift in communication thinking, from one-way messaging to the building of national image, brand and soft power, placing emphasis on inspiring audiences, sharing values and fostering goodwill, strengthening multi-dimensional and authentic communication and ensuring content that is engaging, creative and tailored to the characteristics of each region, market and target audience.
A notable new feature of the strategy is the first-time requirement to develop communication content and messaging.
This includes identifying the key pillars shaping Vietnam's image, building a system of core and priority messages, flexibly adjusting them by phase, market and target audience and leveraging Vietnam stories, role models, figures, events, initiatives and outstanding products across sectors, to spread the country’s image and develop a national visual identity for Vietnam.
Establishing a comprehensive digital communications ecosystem
At the same time, the strategy establishes a comprehensive digital communications ecosystem, strongly applies digital technologies, artificial intelligence and big data in the production and distribution of communication content and builds a multilingual digital content ecosystem across cross-border digital platforms.
It calls for organising promotional campaigns that combine in-person and online formats, digitising content and imagery from traditional events for dissemination on digital platforms, thereby enhancing interaction and strengthening Vietnam's presence in international media and stepping up the visibility of Vietnam's image in reputable international media outlets and communication channels through proactive content and strategic partnerships.
The strategy further identifies investment in human resources and national communication capacity as a key factor, aiming to build a communications workforce with strong international communication, digital communication and multilingual capabilities, able to adapt to the global media environment and meet the increasingly high demands of promoting Vietnam's image overseas in the new phase.
Another task outlined in the strategy is to enhance the effectiveness of inter-sectoral and multi-level coordination, mobilise social resources and establish mechanisms for monitoring, evaluation and flexible adjustment. — Vietnam News/ANN
