Vietnam Hosts International Quantum Hackathon Tied to National Strategy
Vietnam has hosted the finals of an international quantum hackathon that drew teams from 30 countries and territories to Gia Lai province. The event is one visible piece of a national strategy that formally ranks quantum among the country’s priority technologies. Vietnam Investment Review reported the results, which organizers describe as the largest quantum hackathon of its kind in the region so far.
What happened at Vietnam’s international quantum hackathon
The finals of the 2026 Quantum Computing for Social Good International Hackathon opened on July 24 in Gia Lai, bringing together 27 finalist teams and nearly 100 contestants selected from more than 500 applications. It’s organized by the National Innovation Centre (NIC), the Gia Lai People’s Committee, and the Vietnam Quantum Innovation and Technology Experts Network (VNQuantum), with around 50 mentors on hand for a program of training, technical mentoring, solution development, and demonstrations before a judging panel on Demo Day.
The problem statements come from real industry and social needs across AI, cybersecurity, logistics, finance, energy, agriculture, healthcare, and sustainability, with teams encouraged to tie their work to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Organizers describe the wider setup as a training-mentorship-investment matching-incubation model meant to push promising ideas toward commercial projects. Former Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, speaking at the opening, framed the stakes in terms of more than technology:
“Quantum technology is creating opportunities across multiple industries. (…) Competition in this field extends beyond technology itself to talent, research capability, and innovation ecosystems. Vietnam must engage early, gradually master these technologies, and build competitive advantages through Vietnamese innovation and expertise.”
How the hackathon fits Vietnam’s quantum strategy
The hackathon sits inside a formal government push. Vietnam Investment Review reports that the Politburo’s Resolution 57-NQ/TW names science, technology, and digital transformation as growth drivers, and that a Prime Minister’s decision classifies cybersecurity and quantum among the country’s strategic technologies, with quantum computing, communications, and sensing marked as priorities. To Lam, who serves as both Party General Secretary and State President, has cast quantum as a long-term foundation for national competitiveness and technological self-reliance.
Keep the framing measured. A hackathon produces prototypes and pitches, not deployed systems, and the VNQuantum Dealroom matchmaking and the talk of “real-world deployment” describe intentions, with the NIC saying it will keep supporting selected projects through the end of 2026. The account is also second-hand, drawn from Vietnam Investment Review citing organizers, and the “largest in the region” billing is theirs. What’s clear is the direction: Vietnam is doing what a growing list of governments now do, treating quantum as a strategic priority and pairing state investment with talent pipelines, private funding, and early tests of real-world uses like Singapore’s mission-planning trial.