Banking & Finance

Vietnam is committed to opening the financial market to foreign investors, particularly in financial services.

Local authorities are trialing ways to prevent multinationals from structuring affairs in order to divert profits to low tax jurisdictions.

The sluggish disbursement of public investment is attributable to the combination of three major factors.

Vietnam's economy is expected to grow 6.8% this year before slowing to 6.5% in the next few years.

The World Bank has revised up its growth forecast for Vietnam from 6.5% to 6.8% in 2019.

The upgrade is likely to widen Vietnam’s access to large funds allocated according to the FTSE Emerging Index, including Vanguard FTSE Emerging Market ETF.

Corruption increases the cost of doing business, distorts the competitive environment, limits opportunities for investment and widens the growing social inequality, according to a UNDP expert.

Vietnam must grasp opportunities from the internet economy, which is estimated to have a combined value of US$100 billion in Southeast Asia, and is on track to increase by three-fold in the next five years, said a government official.

In 2021, Vietnam strives to have its government bond included in global recognized bond indices such as JP Morgan, Bloomberg Barclays, Citi World Government.

It is a rare combination where Vietnamese banks are growing fast and are quite profitable, said an expert at JP Morgan.

These policies not only introduce new tax treatments such as e-commerce transactions, re-auditing or the application of penalties, but also introduce new regulations of tax compliance and audit management.

A number of foreign-invested firms have falsely labeled their products as originating from Vietnam to avoid trade safeguard instruments amid the US-China trade war.

Tight liquidity is considered the main reason for difficulty that any investor who would like to take advantage of the country’s economic growth is facing.

It is likely that the credit growth in the first 11 months of the year is quite far away from the target of 14%, so the SBV is taking steps to boost credit.

The total assets of commercial banks under state ownership accounted for 43.4% of the total of the banking sector, followed by joint stock commercial banks with 41.4%.

Remittance, along with foreign direct and indirect investment and official development assistance, is a major source of Vietnam’s foreign currency supply.

The public capital must be allocated based on market principles, said an expert.

Encouraging FDI firms to list locally would help supervise their performance as the companies would be managed by not only local authorities but also investors, shareholders, and the local stock exchanges.

As of November 15, the country's state budget revenue reached VND1,299.4 trillion (US$56.18 billion), equivalent to 92.1% of the year's estimate.

Instead of a daily transaction limit, Vietnam’s central bank would set up a monthly limit of VND100 million (US$4,284) for e-wallet users.