What the roadmap actually says
The Prime Minister approved the roadmap for applying Building Information Modelling in construction activities in Decision No. 258/QĐ-TTg, dated 17 March 2023. It sets two phases for projects using public investment capital, state capital outside public investment, and public–private partnerships.
Phase one, from 2023, made BIM compulsory for grade I and special-grade works on newly commencing projects. Phase two, from 2025, extended that to grade II works and above. Projects funded from other sources follow a parallel timeline: grade I and special-grade works provide BIM files from 2024, and grade II works from 2026.
The practical effect is that most construction of any significance in Vietnam now sits inside the mandate. A project that fell below the threshold when it was first scoped may not by the time it starts.
The model is part of the dossier, not an attachment
Under the roadmap the BIM file is a component of the construction design dossier and of the completion dossier — the same standing as the drawings. It has to be provided at feasibility study appraisal, at design appraisal following the basic design step, when applying for the construction permit, and at acceptance.
The decision also sets a minimum for what the model has to show:
- The architecture and main dimensions of the works
- Three-dimensional geometry of the primary structural system
- Air-conditioning and ventilation ducting, and water supply and drainage
- Main drawings and quantities of building components, extractable from the BIM file itself
The state has become a consumer of your model
The roadmap does not stop at requiring a file. From 2023 it directs competent authorities to use BIM models to support appraisal of feasibility studies, design review, construction permitting, and acceptance. The Ministry of Construction is tasked with guidance and with managing a national BIM database, while sector ministries and provincial authorities prepare to receive and manage BIM data and feed it into the national construction database.
That direction was reinforced on 27 November 2025, when Decision No. 2597/QĐ-TTg approved the scheme for digital transformation in construction and in the management and operation of construction infrastructure. It carries the BIM requirement for grade II works and above on public investment and PPP projects, and sets a 2030 target for new construction investment projects to apply AI, IoT, GIS and BIM.
Read together, the two decisions point the same way: the model is becoming the object of review rather than something appended to it.
What this means in practice
Compliance is less a modelling problem than a delivery problem. Producing a model is straightforward. Producing one a reviewing authority can open, interrogate, and trace back to an approved revision is the harder part.
Teams that clear appraisal without drama tend to have the same three things in place before design starts: a BIM execution plan that names the deliverables and the level of information need, an agreed naming and classification convention, and a common data environment where every issued revision has an owner, a date, and an approval trail. Without that last piece, the model that reaches the appraisal desk and the model the team was actually working from can quietly diverge.
For most organisations the sequence that works is to fix the information workflow first and let modelling capacity scale into it — which is the subject of our companion piece on common data environments.
Key points
- BIM has been compulsory for grade I and special-grade state-funded works since 2023, and for grade II and above since 2025.
- The BIM file is part of the design and completion dossiers, submitted at appraisal, permitting, and acceptance.
- Drawings and main quantities must be extractable from the model itself.
- Authorities are being equipped to review the model directly and to collect it into a national BIM database.
