Vietnamese Software Developers

Why Vietnam Is Becoming One of the Most Serious Software Development Talent Markets in the World

For a long time, Vietnam was framed as an “emerging” software outsourcing option. That description no longer fits.

From Ryoss’s perspective, Vietnam has moved well beyond being a lower-cost alternative. It is increasingly a strategic market for companies that want access to high-quality software developers, growing technical depth, and a talent ecosystem that is becoming more sophisticated every year. The macro settings help explain why. The World Bank forecast Vietnam’s GDP to grow by 6.8% in 2025, while official reporting shows the country’s digital economy and technology sector continuing to expand rapidly.

One of the biggest reasons Vietnam is rising so quickly is scale combined with momentum. Official Vietnamese government reporting said that by the end of 2024 the country had 73,788 digital technology companies and nearly 1.26 million workers in the ICT sector. That is a meaningful labour base by any standard, and importantly, it is still growing. Government-linked reporting also noted that Vietnam’s digital technology firms generated nearly US$158 billion in revenue in 2024, with foreign-market revenue reaching US$11.5 billion. This is no longer the profile of a niche offshore market. It is the profile of a serious, expanding technology economy.

The second reason is that Vietnam’s growth is not only about quantity. It is also about the type of market Vietnam is becoming. Official reporting around the country’s “Make in Vietnam” strategy shows a clear push toward higher-value digital activity, including software, product development, R&D, and locally created technology capability. The same reporting said Vietnam now ranks seventh globally in software outsourcing, with nearly 1,900 Vietnamese digital technology firms already earning revenue from foreign markets. That matters because the strongest engineering ecosystems are rarely built on labour supply alone. They become more competitive when local firms are also designing, building, and commercialising technology of their own.

The third reason is the talent pipeline. Vietnam is feeding more students into STEM-related study and building the educational base needed to support long-term technical growth. Reporting in 2025 noted that more than 180,000 students enrolled in STEM-related fields in 2024, with STEM enrolments growing at an average rate of 17% per year over the previous four years. That is a strong signal that the talent base is deepening. At the same time, Vietnam still faces a meaningful shortage of IT talent, which is important in a different way: it tells us demand is real. If the market were weak, there would not be this degree of competition for technical people.

A fourth reason is global validation. Vietnam is no longer just attracting local demand; it is increasingly being pulled into global hiring flows. Vietnam News reported that international hiring of high-skilled Vietnamese talent rose by 111% in 2024, based on Deel data, with software engineers and developers among the most in-demand roles. The top hiring markets included the United States, Great Britain, and Singapore. That matters because it shows that Vietnamese software talent is being recognised by sophisticated international employers, not just by companies looking for lower-cost delivery.

There is also a newer and increasingly important signal: participation in the AI and open-source era. GitHub’s Octoverse 2024 report showed very strong global growth in generative AI activity, and Vietnam stood out as one of the fastest-growing contributor communities to public generative AI projects. That does not mean Vietnam is replacing the largest global engineering markets, but it does indicate that Vietnamese developers are actively moving into the next wave of software development rather than sitting outside it. In a market where AI-assisted engineering, applied machine learning, and open-source collaboration increasingly shape technical relevance, that matters.

What makes Vietnam especially interesting is how it compares with other well-known talent markets. India still dominates on sheer scale and remains one of the world’s deepest software talent pools. The Philippines, meanwhile, continues to hold an edge in English-language capability and is especially strong in support, services, and BPO-aligned roles. Vietnam is different. It does not currently match India for volume, and it does not consistently match the Philippines for English fluency. But that is not the right lens through which to assess it. Vietnam is becoming one of the most compelling markets for engineering-heavy roles because it combines a growing technical base, increasingly global demand, strong digital-economy momentum, and cost structures that are still attractive relative to many mature development markets.

That mix is being reinforced by serious corporate investment. NVIDIA announced in late 2024 that it would open an R&D centre in Vietnam to support AI development. In 2025, SAP announced plans to invest more than €150 million over five years in SAP Labs Vietnam. These moves matter because they are not symbolic. They suggest that global technology companies see Vietnam as a place where meaningful engineering, product, and innovation work can be done. When major firms start building R&D capability locally, the surrounding talent market usually matures even faster.

There is also a broader digital-economy story underpinning all of this. Reporting tied to the latest Southeast Asia digital economy outlook projected Vietnam’s digital economy to reach US$39 billion in 2025, with forecasts of US$85 billion or more by 2030. Whether one looks at it from a macroeconomic, technology, or labour-market perspective, the direction is consistent: Vietnam is becoming more digital, more sophisticated, and more central to regional technology growth. That matters because software talent markets do not strengthen in isolation. They strengthen when digital demand inside the country rises alongside foreign demand coming in from outside.

From Ryoss’s standpoint, the key conclusion is straightforward: Vietnam can now compete with any serious software talent market for the right type of role, provided the hiring model is set up properly. This is not a market to approach casually. The best outcomes come when companies assess technical capability rigorously, calibrate English requirements to the actual role, understand the difference between junior abundance and senior scarcity, and work with partners who can navigate local hiring, compliance, and retention in a practical way.

The old view of Vietnam was that it was a cheaper option. The more accurate view now is that it is a deeper option. It has the macro growth, sector scale, talent pipeline, international validation, and corporate investment to be taken seriously as a top-tier software sourcing market. For businesses willing to look beyond outdated assumptions, Vietnam is now one of the most interesting places in the world to build software capability.