Vietnam’s economic trajectory in recent years has been marked by a steady stream of positive indicators. Growth remains strong, foreign investment continues to flow in, and local businesses are scaling at an unprecedented pace. Yet beneath this upward momentum lies a less visible reality. The faster companies grow, the greater the pressure to accelerate operations.
This growing pressure is not unique to Vietnam. From a regional perspective, Mr. Andrew Chim, Head of Southeast Asia Expansion at Airwallex, sees this pressure not as a setback, but as a natural consequence of rapid economic acceleration. In his view, growth creates opportunity, but it also forces businesses to continuously scale, optimize their operations, and strengthen their workforce capabilities in order to remain competitive over the long term.
Against this backdrop, Vietnam is emerging as one of Southeast Asia’s most dynamic growth hotspots, where expanding opportunities for local enterprises are unfolding alongside new and complex challenges in scale and talent.
Vietnam’s New Growth Era For Domestic Businesses
As several Southeast Asian economies begin to grapple with aging populations and rising labor costs, Vietnam is moving along a different trajectory. With roughly 70 million people in the working-age bracket, the country not only maintains a strong labor supply but also sustains domestic consumption and production. This dual advantage places Vietnam in a rare position within the region, preserving what is often described as a “golden window” for growth, reminiscent of China’s breakout phase more than two decades ago.
At the same time, recent geopolitical shifts, particularly ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China, have accelerated the restructuring of global supply chains. Under the China+1 strategy, businesses are actively seeking alternative manufacturing and export bases, and Vietnam has steadily emerged as a compelling option. Competitive costs, strategic location, and deeper integration into global trade networks have all contributed to its rise. Together, these structural and external factors reinforce Vietnam’s position as a rising hub in the region. From a regional vantage point, Vietnam is increasingly seen as a market to watch. As Mr. Chim said, the country is gaining attention across multiple fronts, from manufacturing and import export to high tech, becoming a place “everybody is looking at” when considering expansion.
This influx of opportunity, however, comes with rising expectations for domestic enterprises. As market boundaries extend beyond national borders, Vietnamese companies are no longer operating within familiar constraints. They are required to scale faster, adapt to higher standards, and compete in a broader arena. This highlights a broader issue. Financial infrastructure is no longer a backend function, but a strategic layer that determines how efficiently businesses can scale. In this context, growth is no longer a long term ambition but a condition for survival. He emphasized, without continued growth, businesses risk losing their competitive edge altogether. Vietnam’s structural advantages are therefore not just fueling expansion, they are also setting the stage for a new phase of development, where local enterprises are pushed to evolve in step with the scale of opportunity.
Scaling Vietnam’s Businesses Is Crucial But Tough
As market opportunities expand, the pressure to grow becomes increasingly unavoidable for Vietnamese businesses. Acquiring new customers, increasing revenue, and scaling operations are no longer long term strategic choices. They are immediate requirements for survival. In an increasingly competitive environment, standing still is not an option. Companies that fail to grow risk being overtaken by more agile competitors who can scale faster and adapt more quickly. Growth is no longer optional. It is the baseline that defines whether a business can stay in the game.
However, once businesses move beyond domestic markets, many quickly realize that the challenge is not only about reaching new customers, but also about managing cross border operations. International transactions often come with high foreign exchange costs and complex processes, forcing companies to allocate resources to activities that do not directly generate value. This issue is particularly evident among Vietnamese startups selling through platforms such as Amazon or Shopify, where high payment fees and delayed cash flow can significantly impact working capital. According to BIS’s report, cross border payment costs and delays remain among the biggest barriers for businesses expanding internationally.
From this perspective, Mr. Chim highlights a critical but often overlooked issue. When discussing operational costs, particularly those related to foreign exchange, he noted that “FX fees do not drive the business.” These costs do not contribute to value creation, yet they gradually erode resources and slow down growth if left unoptimized.
This is where financial and technological infrastructure becomes a key differentiator. Rather than accepting operational friction as inevitable, businesses are increasingly optimizing payment flows and cash management to improve efficiency. Solutions like Airwallex help simplify cross border transactions, enabling companies to focus more on core priorities such as product development, market expansion, and team building. In today’s landscape, competitive advantage is no longer defined solely by market presence, but by how effectively a business operates at scale. Infrastructure, therefore, is no longer a background function, it is a driver of growth.
Vietnam’s Talent Advantage Meets A Critical Bottleneck
If growth creates opportunities for Vietnamese businesses, the talent market ultimately determines whether those opportunities can be realized. For years, Vietnam has been an attractive destination due to its competitive labor costs, roughly half of China’s in many manufacturing sectors. However, this advantage is no longer defined by cost alone. In line with the development of the knowledge-based economy, the proportion of the labor force with degrees or certificates in Vietnam reached 29.2% in 2025.
This shift signals a broader transformation. Vietnam is no longer just a source of low cost labor, but is increasingly becoming a skilled workforce capable of contributing to higher value segments of the global economy. This evolution provides a strong foundation for businesses to scale and compete more effectively.
At the same time, rapid growth exposes structural limitations in the talent market. Companies are no longer simply looking to hire more people, they need individuals with a global mindset, cross border working capabilities, and the ability to adapt to constant scaling. In reality, a significant gap remains between demand and capability. Businesses may be able to recruit, but often struggle to find talent with the experience required to operate at scale. The challenge, therefore, lies not in quantity, but in quality and mindset.
As this gap persists, competition for qualified talent intensifies as growth fuels an increasingly competitive race for talent. While companies may hire aggressively in early stages, attracting and retaining high quality talent becomes far more difficult as they expand. According to ManpowerGroup, up to 75% of global employers report difficulty in finding the right talent, reflecting a tightening labor market.
In response, businesses are beginning to rethink how they approach talent. Instead of relying solely on headcount expansion, many are focusing on optimizing operational systems and leveraging technology to reduce dependency on manual processes. By streamlining workflows and automating repetitive tasks, companies can scale more efficiently without proportionally increasing their workforce.
Financial infrastructure solutions, including platforms like Airwallex, become increasingly relevant. By simplifying cross border payments, foreign exchange, and cash flow management, such platforms help reduce operational complexity and free up internal resources. Rather than expanding teams to manage inefficiencies, businesses can redirect their focus toward core priorities such as product innovation, market expansion, and talent development.
Ultimately, this reflects a deeper shift in how talent is perceived. People are no longer just resources to fill roles, they are strategic assets whose value depends on how effectively they are deployed. As infrastructure and technology take over operational burdens, human capital becomes more concentrated in areas that drive innovation and growth.
Vietnam is entering a rare window of opportunity, where the potential for expansion has never been clearer. Yet capturing that opportunity requires more than speed. It demands operational clarity, technological leverage, and a long term commitment to talent development. Moving fast is no longer enough. Without the right infrastructure and talent to support that speed, growth itself can become a liability.