VIETNAM STANDARD INDUSTRIAL CLASSIFICATION UPDATED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE PURPOSES
On September 29, 2025, Deputy Prime Minister signed into effect Decision No. 36/2025/QD-TTg (“Decision 36”), which promulgates a new Vietnam Standard Industrial Classification (VSIC). The renewed framework underpins official statistics, business registration, and administrative databases in the country.
Effective November 15, 2025, the new VSIC aims to standardize government records and align Vietnam’s economic classification with international standards – an essential step for investors, analysts, and policymakers tracking sectoral performance.
1. Purpose and criteria
The VSIC serves three key purposes:
- Ensuring consistency in state statistical operations;
- Supporting the development of administrative and national databases; and
- Providing a common basis for state management and policy formulation.
Under the framework, an economic sector is defined as a group of similar economic activities determined by three criteria, prioritized as follows:
- The production process of the activity;
- The input materials used to produce goods or services; and
- The characteristics of the output products.
2. Structure and coding
The new classification ensures that Vietnam’s sectoral structure accurately reflects all economic activities within its territory while remaining compatible with international comparison standards. It includes two main components:
- Appendix I: List of Vietnam Standard Industrial Classification; and
- Appendix II: Detailed structure of Vietnam Standard Industrial Classification.
The classification is organized into five hierarchical levels:
- Level 1: 22 sectors, coded alphabetically from A to V;
- Level 2: 87 sectors, each corresponding to a Level 1 category and assigned two-digit codes (01–99);
- Level 3: 259 sectors, assigned three-digit codes (011–990);
- Level 4: 495 sectors, assigned four-digit codes (0111–9900); and
- Level 5: 743 sectors, assigned five-digit codes (01110–99000).
The revision aims to modernize the classification system to better reflect structural economic changes, incorporate a green economy framework, improve comparability with international standards, and support statistical accuracy for planning and policymaking.