Name: Bizline - Việt Nam's rise: A diplomat's view | Vietnam Today
Uploaded: 2026-03-30T01:52:46.000Z
Duration: 18 min 16 s
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Around the world today, governments are racing to secure supply chains, invest in critical minerals,

and build the technologies that will shape the 21st-century economy.

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Vietnam is increasingly part of that global story.

With sweeping reforms and an ambitious target of double-digit growth, the country is aiming to climb the global value chain, not just expand within it.

How do global investors view Vietnam's next move?

Joining us on Bizline is Andrew Golediznawski, former Australian ambassador to Vietnam and a veteran diplomat with four decades of experience.

Although now based back in Australia, he continues to follow Vietnam's economic journey closely.

We were fortunate to catch up with him during his recent visit to Vietnam.

Our reporter Leena Pham spoke with him about the country's growth ambitions, its strategic resources,

and why this could be a defining moment for Vietnam's economic future.

Well, Leena, I retired in March when I went back to Australia because that was 40 years of service in the Foreign Ministry and I thought that was probably enough.

And now I'm involved in all sorts of other things, but most of them Vietnam-related.

So this particular trip I'm doing with an Australian company called EQ Resources, which is the largest miner of tungsten in the world, outside of China.

And they are visiting their customer here in Vietnam, which is Masan High-Tech, which is the biggest refiner of tungsten in the world, outside of China.

Tungsten is one of the critical minerals in the world that the supply chain is very important.

Everything that's important in the world that's made, manufactured, is involving with tungsten in some way.

So if we can strengthen that supply chain, then it's good for both Vietnam and Australia.

The resolution 57, it did mention minerals and the strategy of Vietnam to leverage that.

What do you think of the current situation?

Vietnam is not traditionally a country that has done very much with its natural resources under the ground.

So your tungsten reserves, I mentioned that, that's important for semiconductors, for machine tools, for aviation, for military applications.

You have the second-biggest reserves in the world.

Again, Vietnam, we think, has the second-biggest reserves in the world, after China.

And I know that the government is very keen that some exploration should happen to get a better definition of exactly what the value and quality of Vietnam's reserves are.

But what I understand Vietnam's strategy is,

and I think this is a correct one, is not just to dig up minerals and sell them overseas.

It's to create the entire supply chain, from mining to refining and separation through to making the metals and then the finished products.

So the iPhone in my pocket includes rare earths.

Without the rare earths, it doesn't function.

And Vietnam is one of the few countries in the world that has the potential to do everything from mines to metals and to magnets.

It's the magnets that are the key to so many applications these days.

So Australia is the biggest refiner of rare earths outside of China.

So again, there's this sort of natural synergy, natural complementarity where we can do things together.

Vietnam is widely considered one of the countries with the greatest potential for strategic mineral resources in the world, particularly rare earths and tungsten.

Geological Survey, Vietnam ranks second globally in rare earth reserves after China.

However, most activities in Vietnam remain at the stage of exploration and pilot projects, as rare earth separation technology is highly complex and carries significant environmental risks.

In contrast, Vietnam's tungsten industry has already reached a global scale.

The Nui Pham mine in Thanh Nguyen, operated by Masan High-Tech Materials, is the largest tungsten mine in the world outside China.

Vietnam's mineral strategy is shifting away from exporting raw materials toward building a complete value chain.

According to resolution 57, mineral resources should not simply be treated as commodities to sell.

Instead, Vietnam aims to transition from a resource-extracting country to a producer of advanced materials and technology.

The resolution emphasizes that natural resources, especially strategic minerals, should be developed through deep processing, avoiding raw exports,

and integrating into global technology value chains.

Technology is also a big part of your work.

Can you tell us more about what you have been doing to maybe help Vietnam to get more investors?

and Malaysia is competing with Vietnam to make semiconductors and to build data centers and all of these important elements for 21st-century technology.

But I think Vietnam has a fantastic opportunity.

I'm talking next week to one of Australia's two big data center producers.

They've been very successful in other parts of Southeast Asia in producing first-class data centers because there's different levels of data centers.

And the high-quality ones are the ones which the Apples and the Nvidias and the Googles need to use.

And they're now interested in Vietnam, which I think is very exciting.

And the technology can go in both directions.

I can see a future where Vietnam is the number one choice for Australian companies who want to outsource their IT work, software development, data analysis.

Global supply chains are once again under pressure as tensions in the Middle East keep energy markets on edge.

Nearly 20% of the world's oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, making the region a critical choke point for global trade and energy security.

Rising shipping costs, volatile oil prices,

and intensifying geopolitical competition are forcing companies to rethink where they produce and how they move goods.

For Vietnam, the conflict in the Middle East has pushed up oil and energy prices, creating inflationary pressure.

Logistics and maritime shipping have also become more expensive, forcing export-oriented industries such as textile, furniture, electronics, and

footwear to bear higher costs, face longer delivery times, and see their profit margins shrink.

There is also the risk of disruption to technology supply chains.

These developments present a series of concrete challenges for Vietnam's economy, particularly because Vietnam is a highly open economy with total trade equivalent to roughly 200% of GDP.

The National Assembly set a target for GDP growth of 10%, which everybody thinks is very ambitious.

But the question now is, is it realistic?

Well, I think that's a really good question.

I remember when I first arrived in Vietnam, the ambition was to do 6% a year, 6.5%.

And then when the new General Secretary was appointed, he made a speech to the Central Committee where he made a number of commitments to reduce the size of the civil service, to consolidate provinces, to do a number of important things like that.

And he promised double-digit economic growth.

I identified the double-digit growth commitment as being the most important element because it implies that the private sector will have to take the lead.

And that's now been formalised in resolution 68.

Vietnam is doing very well, but only 50% of Vietnam's economy is private sector.

And only 30% of tax revenues come from the private sector.

So what that means is there's a lot of room for growth in Vietnam,

but it has to be driven by the private sector.

And that's the genius of what the General Secretary has put in place.

When you try and grow an economy fast, you can overheat and you can generate inflation, which would be terrible in the Vietnamese context.

The other challenge is Vietnam is an exporting economy.

But now we're going into a phase when protectionism is increasing, tariffs are increasing, the world is becoming less predictable.

The third big challenge, I guess, is Vietnam wants to achieve all of these things, which no country has achieved since Korea did it back in the 1980s, while at the same time also decarbonising your economy.

That's incredibly difficult, very complex.

So again, the growth challenge is very difficult for Vietnam, especially now with the global headwinds, the tariffs and everything.