Vietnam needs to mobilize very large investment resources
The 14th National Party Congress set out the goal that by 2030 Vietnam will become a developing country with modern industry and high average income; realize the vision to become a developed country with high income by 2045. Accordingly, in the period 2026-2030, strive to achieve an average growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) of 10%/year or more for the period.
Speaking at the Workshop "Effectively mobilizing capital sources, serving the goal of double-digit growth" organized by the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam in coordination with Lao Dong Newspaper on March 12, 2026, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi assessed that this is a "very ambitious" goal, especially in the context of world geopolitics and economy, a region full of fluctuations as it is today, requiring in the period 2026 - 2030 to mobilize large resources to serve economic development investment.
According to Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Chi, in 2025, the Vietnamese economy achieved very positive results, GDP growth reached 8.02%, with inflation controlled at 3.31%.
Although very positive results have been achieved, it can be seen that there are still many difficulties and challenges ahead. The capital demand for development investment in the coming period is very large, especially capital for strategic infrastructure projects, North-South connectivity, regional and international connectivity. Businesses themselves also need large resources to both maintain operations in a volatile context; and invest, research, and expand production and business.
Meanwhile, the scale of the domestic capital market is still modest, the system of professional institutional investors is not diverse in terms of both types and financial capacity, securities investment funds and pension funds operate not commensurate with their potential, and the attraction of foreign indirect investment capital still has some obstacles" - Deputy Minister Nguyen Duc Chi emphasized.
Great room for the Vietnamese capital market to expand its scale
Over the past decade, the Vietnamese economy has maintained an average GDP growth rate of about 6–7% per year, becoming one of the economies with stable growth in the region. In parallel, the rapid expansion of the middle class and the golden population structure with more than 60% of the population being of working age has created important foundations for the development of the financial and capital markets.
Looking from the perspective of institutional investment funds, Mr. Tran Hieu - Head of Business Development Department, Mirae Asset Investment Fund (Vietnam) assessed that the Vietnamese capital market is facing a stage of development with many rare favorable factors.
In terms of scale, Vietnam's capital market still has a lot of room to expand. Currently, Vietnam's stock market capitalization reaches about 85% of GDP. Compared to more developed markets in the region such as Thailand or Malaysia - where market capitalization has exceeded 100% of GDP - Vietnam's market size still has a significant gap. This shows that the growth potential of the capital market is still large as the economy continues to expand and more and more businesses participate in listing on the market.
Another factor showing market development potential is the scale of domestic investors. The proportion of population participating in securities investment in Vietnam is currently only about 8–10%. Meanwhile, in more developed markets in Asia such as Korea or Taiwan (China), this ratio is about 35–40%. This difference shows that the Vietnamese stock market still has great potential in expanding the number of domestic individual investors, thereby contributing to increasing the depth and liquidity of the market.
Besides the internal factors of the economy, the market upgrade process is also considered an important factor that can create a new shift for the Vietnamese capital market. FTSE's upgrade of Vietnam from a frontier market to an emerging market is expected to create a structural boost for international investment capital flows. When the upgrade process is implemented, the market may attract more foreign capital, including passive index investment funds and active investment funds. In the long term, the next goal is to be considered for MSCI's upgrade, thereby further expanding the ability to attract large capital flows from global investors.
In addition, some recent reforms in the Vietnamese stock market are also creating a foundation for development in the next stage. The deployment of the KRX trading system, improvements to increase market access for foreign investors as well as changes in the public offering (IPO) process are expected to contribute to improving market infrastructure and improving the efficiency of capital mobilization activities.
From the perspective of institutional investment funds, these factors show that the Vietnamese capital market is facing an important turning point in the development cycle. The combination of a positive macroeconomic foundation, market expansion room and infrastructure and institutional reforms are creating favorable conditions for the development of the capital market in the coming years. If reforms continue to be implemented synchronously, the Vietnamese capital market may enter a new stage of development with quality and scale significantly increased in the next three to five years.
