<span>This article presents the National Transformational Capacity (NTC) Theory as an analytical framework for understanding the middle-income trap not merely as a problem of inadequate policies or scarce resources, but as a limitation in a country’s capacity to organize and strategically coordinate development at the system level. Building on this perspective, the paper links NTC to Vietnam’s Integrated Economic Growth Model (IGM) as a concrete application aimed at simultaneously addressing three structural bottlenecks of growth: low productivity, low domestic value added, and limited access to international markets. The analysis shows that Vietnam’s pathway toward high-quality growth depends on strengthening its national transformational capacity—turning reforms into endogenous drivers of development and opening a more sustainable long-term growth trajectory.</span>