The gala honored 45 categories across four award categories, ranging from Vietnamese-developed artificial intelligence solutions and businesses that build national platforms to technology products and car models that create changes in consumers' lives.
Innovation must be transformed into value.
The Better Choice Awards 2026, themed “Innovation Beyond Borders,” was attended by approximately 1,000 delegates, businesses, and guests. This was the fourth season of the awards, celebrating innovative values that have blurred the lines between nations, between industries, and between familiar product forms.
Speaking at the event, Mr. Vo Xuan Hoai, Deputy Director of the National Innovation Center (NIC), stated that in a world changing increasingly rapidly due to technology, artificial intelligence, and new business models, innovation is becoming one of the main drivers of productivity, competitiveness, and growth.
According to Mr. Vo Xuan Hoai, for Vietnam, when setting a double-digit growth target, innovation becomes even more important. Growth does not only come from expanding investment or resources, but increasingly must be based on productivity, technology, the quality of human resources, and the ability to create new products, services, and business models.
Resolution 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo has created a new strategic direction, strongly promoting the integration of science, technology, and innovation into a direct productive force, contributing to enhancing the competitiveness and endogenous strength of the economy.
According to WIPO's Global Innovation Index 2026, Vietnam ranks 43rd out of 139 countries and economies . However, according to Mr. Vo Xuan Hoai, what is more important than a ranking is the ability to transform knowledge, technology, and innovation into products, businesses, productivity, and concrete values for the economy and social life.
"Innovation must ultimately be validated by the market and transformed into value. A technology is only truly meaningful when it is applied; a research result only truly creates an impact when it is transferred," Mr. Vo Xuan Hoai emphasized.
Over the past period, the Vietnamese business community, research institutes, and universities have made many efforts in research, technology application, new product development, and service quality improvement. More and more businesses are investing in R&D, mastering technology, improving products and processes; and many research results have been put into practice.
These are crucial foundations for developing the innovative capacity of the economy and creating new growth drivers for Vietnam.
Four award categories, combining voting and in-depth evaluation.
The 2026 Better Choice Awards season has been restructured into four categories: Innovative Choice Awards, Smart Choice Awards, Car Choice Awards, and Nation Builder Awards.
These include the Innovative Choice Awards for innovative solutions, artificial intelligence, and startups; the Smart Choice Awards for officially distributed consumer technology products in Vietnam; the Car Choice Awards for automotive models, events, and content channels; and the Nation Builders Awards, which honor businesses that build national platforms and Vietnamese brands recognized by the community.
The results for each category are compiled from scores given by the judging panel, comprising multidisciplinary experts from both within and outside the country, and community votes on VCCorp's digital media platform. The weighting between these two sources of points is designed specifically for each category.
The titles in the Nation Builders Awards' Council series are judged entirely by a panel of judges, while the titles in the Proud Vietnam series are entirely voted on by the community.
The Nation Builders Awards is a brand new awards category for the 2026 season, built on the spirit of Resolution 57-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in science , technology, and innovation development, and Resolution 68-NQ/TW on the development of the private economy.
While other award-winning programs honor individual products, the Nation Builders Awards recognize businesses that are undertaking national-level projects, value chains, and technological capabilities.
In the Council's awards, the honored businesses were all associated with tangible projects during the year. Among them, Viettel Group was recognized for its first semiconductor chip manufacturing plant in Vietnam and Viettel IDC's Hoa Lac 2 Data Center.
Petrovietnam's Nhon Trach 3 and 4 power plants, the country's first LNG power plant project, also received recognition. Vinamilk celebrated its 50th anniversary and was awarded the First-Class Independence Medal, while TCBS became the first securities company in Vietnam to surpass the 100,000 billion VND mark in total assets.
The Council also dedicated a category to FDI enterprises that have integrated Vietnam's manufacturing and research capabilities into the global value chain, including Samsung, LG, Intel, Amkor Technology, and Qualcomm.
In the "Proud of Vietnam" segment, the community voted for 4 titles out of 20 brands, with VinFast, Green SM, and Sun Group being honored with 2 titles each.
Encourage businesses to continue investing in innovation.
Mr. Pham Xuan Ha, Senior Event Director of VCCorp and Head of the Organizing Committee for the Better Choice Awards 2026, stated that the Better Choice Awards seeks choices that improve lives every day, rather than a single best answer that only holds true on paper.
According to Mr. Pham Xuan Ha, the fourth season of the Nation Builders Awards added a new category because Vietnam's innovation has gone beyond the scope of a single product to become a capability of both businesses and the economy as a whole.
Meanwhile, Ms. Kim Ngoc Thanh Nga, Deputy Director of the National Innovation Center (NIC), said that the National Innovation Center has been a partner of the Better Choice Awards since its first season, with the desire to recognize innovative activities that have been transformed into improvements in products delivered to consumers.
After four seasons, Vietnamese consumers are increasingly knowledgeable and willing to choose products with high technological content and outstanding innovations. This is the driving force for Vietnamese businesses to confidently invest long-term in technology and R&D, in line with the spirit of Resolution 57 on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation.
In addition to the 45 main categories, the Gala announced the Better List 2026 ranking, which is based on direct scoring by the tech-savvy user community and public voting.
The Gala also awarded the "Innovative Application Worth Installing" certificate to iHanoi, the digital citizen application of Hanoi City, which helps people report incidents, look up information, and perform public services on their phones.
Notably, Vietnamese-developed artificial intelligence took center stage at the Innovative Choice Awards. FPT was honored in both the "Make in Vietnam" artificial intelligence product category and the AI agent solution category. Galaxy AI was also recognized for integrating Vietnamese into features used daily.
At the Car Choice Awards, electrified vehicles dominated, with 7 out of 13 awards going to hybrid or purely electric cars. Two startups, Dat Bike and Volterra, also received awards.
The Better Choice Awards 2026 is a national award that honors, encourages, and promotes innovative values applied in daily life and serving consumers. The awards gala is a key event in the annual National Innovation Day, chaired by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Source: https://baotintuc.vn/better-choice-awards-2026-vinh-danh-nhung-doi-moi-sang-tao-post1391386.html
