The upgrading roadmap has reached the final step
According to Chairwoman of the State Securities Commission (SSC) Vu Thi Chan Phuong, the remaining factor that needs to be improved so that market rating organizations can consider upgrading Vietnam is no longer in the policy system or legal regulations, but is the practical experience of foreign investors in the Vietnamese market.
When we have completed policy mechanisms and removed bottlenecks, the experience of foreign investors directly investing in the Vietnamese market is a very important factor, because they are the ones who vote for us to be upgraded" - Ms. Phuong emphasized.
According to her, this requires listed companies to proactively improve the quality of governance and information transparency, especially publishing bilingually in Vietnamese and English for foreign investors to easily access.
Ms. Phuong also highly appreciated the role of domestic investors in maintaining the transparency, stability and sustainable development of the market.
"We hope to diversify investors, encourage the participation of institutional investors, professional investors - that is an inevitable trend" - Ms. Phuong said.
Sharing his own experience, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Anh (35 years old, a personal investor in Hanoi) said that in the past, when the market was bustling, the situation of orders being congested caused many difficulties, especially in high-value sessions. However, since the new transaction system was put into operation, every operation from placing an order to looking up information has become smoother, transactions are stable, without interruption. I see that the transaction infrastructure has improved. Investing is now easier, especially when using transaction applications via phone," said Mr. Hoang Anh.
Large capital flows ready to flow into Vietnam
According to Ms. Tran Ngoc Thuy Vy - analyst at Mirae Asset Vietnam Securities Company, if FTSE Russell announced the upgrading of Vietnam from a "border market" to a "secondary emerging market" in the September 2025 review, capital flows from ETFs using the FTSE Emerging Markets Index as a reference index can disburse up to 621.8 million USD into the Vietnamese stock market.
Mirae Asset estimates that Vietnam's allocation share in the FTSE Emerging Markets basket could reach about 0.7%. With this ratio, Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF - with a scale of nearly 83 billion USD - alone - was able to invest 581 million USD in Vietnamese stocks. Many other funds such as Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets UCits ETF ( London), Vanguard All Cap Index ETF ( Canada) and some ETFs in the UK and Australian markets... could also disburse tens of millions of USD.
Ms. Vy noted that the above $621.8 million is only for passive ETF funds, excluding active capital flows - which have higher flexibility and strong disbursement ability if the Vietnamese market maintains a stable share in the index basket after being upgraded.
According to Ms. Vy, one of the important steps is the implementation of the central clearing mechanism (CCP), expected to start from 2026, when a subsidiary of Vietnam Securities Depository and Clearing Corporation (VSDC) is established.
To truly reduce risks and create trust for the parties, there needs to be a CCP as an intermediary to ensure payment, especially in the context of increasingly large and diverse market liquidity, Ms. Vy analyzed.
She said that CCP will help reorganize the payment process between VSDC and market members such as securities companies and depositors, while enhancing safety and professionalism for the post-transaction cycle. Along with that, the Non-Prefunding (NPF) mechanism - allowing non-deposit transactions to be implemented according to Circular 68/2024/TT-BTC also helps improve transaction flexibility and efficiency for foreign investors.
Mr. Le Minh Quan (40 years old, a individual investor in Hanoi) expects that new cash flow from ETFs and institutional investors will flow into large stocks, thereby promoting the increase in stock price level and improving market liquidity.
Commitment to reforming institutions and policies to elevate the market
Party Central Committee member and Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang affirmed that Vietnam is committed to reforming the capital market to improve efficiency, transparency and attract long-term capital flows. Reform not only meets the criteria for upgrading but is also a sustainable foundation. Currently, the Ministry of Finance is finalizing the Draft amending Decree 155/2020/ND-CP and building a new legal framework to improve the quality of securities and expand market capitalization.
To date, the market has had more than 1,600 listed and registered enterprises, with the total capitalization of the stock and bond market reaching nearly 100% of GDP, becoming an important medium and long-term capital mobilization channel for the economy, economic organizations and an attractive investment channel with more than 10 million domestic and foreign investor accounts.
To continue developing a sustainable and modern market in the coming time, Minister Nguyen Van Thang suggested that the securities industry thoroughly grasp the spirit of innovation and drastically implement a number of key tasks:
First, continue to build and perfect a synchronous legal framework, in line with international practices, to ensure stability, transparency and efficiency in market operations.
Second, organize safe, stable and effective market operations; reform administrative procedures, create favorable conditions for organizations and individuals to participate in the market; at the same time, improve management capacity, strengthen inspection, supervision and strict handling of violations, contributing to improving transparency and discipline of the market.
Third, continue to effectively restructure market pillars, increase the proportion of institutional investors, improve the quality of goods, and diversify products and services to better meet the needs of the market and investors.
Fourth, strongly promote digital transformation, modernize information technology infrastructure, effectively serve State management and meet market development requirements in the new period.
Fifth, strengthen information, propaganda and knowledge training for investors; promote comprehensive and in-depth international cooperation, thereby enhancing the position of the Vietnamese stock market. In particular, it is necessary to resolutely and synchronously deploy solutions to soon upgrade the market from frontier to emerging market, thereby strongly attracting domestic and foreign investment flows.
