Vietnam resolved to have stock market status upgraded next year: PM

The Vietnamese government is determined to have the country’s stock market status upgraded in 2025 as it seeks to raise more funds from foreign investors and improve listed companies’ governance.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh made the statement at a Wednesday conference on deploying tasks to develop the local stock market this year.

To facilitate the upgrade, Chinh urged relevant authorities to quickly take action to move Vietnam’s stock market from “frontier market” to “emerging market”.

Specifically, the Ministry of Finance, State Securities Commission, State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), and Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) have been asked to coordinate efforts and remove hurdles to the upgrade under global index providers MSCI and FTSE Russell. They are required to send reports to the government by June 30.

The SBV needs to streamline procedures and shorten the time required for foreign investors to open indirect investment accounts.

The MPI is requested to review and disclose all regulations on foreign ownership limits for industries, and upgrade the information on its portal in both Vietnamese and English.

The PM noted that over more than two decades, the Vietnamese stock market has experienced ups and downs, but the government and he personally had always looked to improve it.

The size of the local stock market has been expanding constantly, from 0.22% of the country’s GDP in 2000 when it was launched to 33.52% in 2010 and 58.1% of GDP in 2023.

Between 2014 and 2023, the country mobilized VND3,800 trillion (roughly $154 billion at the current exchange rate), or VND380 trillion a year on average, in mid- and long-term capital, up 4.35-fold from the preceding period. Of the figure, local companies raised VND1,150 trillion.

The government chief pointed out shortcomings that need handling, including outdated legal corridors and accounting standards, stock manipulation, violations committed by a number of market officials, and sanctions that are not strict or timely enough.

FTSE Russell is expected to upgrade Vietnam’s stock market status in September 2024 or March 2025 while MSCI may put Vietnam on its watch list in June 2025 and upgrade the status three months later, according to BIDV Securities JSC analysts.