Why Invest in Vietnam?

1. Market Drivers

The demand for internet, data, and AI is growing faster than infrastructure capacity. Vietnam is a young, highly connected market undergoing rapid digital transformation, with a population of over 100 million entering the AI era.

• 14.8% Data Center Market CAGR through 2030
• AI has become a national strategy with established legal frameworks, infrastructure initiatives, and allocated budgets."
• The Data Center market growth rate is projected to reach a 14.8% CAGR through 2030.

2. Power: PDP8 and a Competitive Electricity Market

The energy challenge has always been one of the top critical priorities that must be resolved prior to deploying any data center project. Viet Nam is having positive action:

• Revised Power Development Plan VIII (PDP8): The target installed capacity by 2030 is raised to 236,363 MW, an increase of approximately 80,000 MW compared to the previous plan, primarily driven by solar and wind power. Nuclear power has returned to the agenda with the 2.4 GW Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power plant.
• Gradual transition of the power market from monopoly to competition: Competitive Generation Market (2012) to Vietnam Wholesale Electricity Market - VWEM (2019). Now, the Competitive Retail Electricity Market currently being prepared, alongside the EVN restructuring scheme to reduce monopolistic advantages.
• Direct Power Purchase Agreement (DPPA): Decree 57/2025 opens up a mechanism for direct renewable energy supply to large consumers. Decree 243/2026 (issued in June 2026) allows data centers to participate in financial DPPA via the national grid and removes the price cap for private-grid DPPA transactions.
• Operational reality: The first power generation unit officially participated in the national grid DPPA mechanism starting June 1, 2026.

Step 3: New Step Heading

• 100% foreign ownership for data center, cloud computing, and OTT services under the 2023 Telecommunications Law (effective in 2024).
• Efforts to streamline business conditions: Under the Investment Law effective from March 1, 2026, data center services have been removed from the list of conditional business lines.
• Tax incentives: The Law on Digital Technology Industry (effective January 1, 2026) stipulates a 10% corporate income tax (CIT) rate for 15 years for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) projects, with a 4-year tax exemption and a 50% reduction for the subsequent 9 years, along with a maximum land rental exemption of up to 15 years. Large-scale AI/HPC projects (with capital from VND 6,000 billion, approximately USD 230 million or more) can access the highest tier of incentives: a 5% CIT rate for 37 years and a 22-year land rental exemption.
• Private-sector-led development orientation (Decision 2161): By 2030, at least 50% of the national data center capacity shall come from private green operators, with at least 2 global tech corporations investing directly, and at least 4 new privately owned international submarine fiber-optic cables.

Step 4: New Step Heading

While these resource advantages and incentives appear readily available, there is no such thing as a free lunch. Drawing lessons from the experiences of developed economies, Vietnam has been selectively curating investment capital through sophisticated criteria - imposing stringent requirements on sustainability, technology transfer, and rigorous post-audit mechanisms. One thing is certain: any capable investor will be able to research, adapt to, and meet these conditions on their own. However, the question is whether they can do so quickly enough to meet the highly sensitive time-to-market demands of today's data center industry. Furthermore, the opportunity cost for an investor to independently source a land plot that matches their scale and risk appetite is substantial and daunting. These are precisely the driving forces behind the essential need for an experienced local partner - such as DCOMPASS - capable of delivering comprehensive due diligence, expert consulting, information services, and end-to-end connections across the industry's upstream and downstream ecosystem.