Today, many foreign funds are evaluating Vietnam through a broader institutional lens. In addition to growth prospects, they increasingly consider market liquidity, corporate governance standards, transparency, policy stability, and the availability of scalable opportunities.

Angela Yang, partner, Corporate Finance PwC Vietnam

As Vietnam’s capital market matures, investors are looking not only at whether the economy can grow, but also at whether they can deploy and manage capital efficiently over the long term.

This reflects a wider global shift. PwC’s 2025 Global Investor Survey covering 1,074 professionals across 26 countries and territories found that investors are prioritising resilience, technology-enabled transformation, credible governance, and greater transparency around financial and non-financial performance.

In terms of sectors, we continue to see strong interest in advanced manufacturing, industrial and logistics infrastructure, technology-related businesses, and the broader digital economy. Energy transition is also attracting growing attention, particularly as Vietnam pursues its net-zero commitments and expands renewable energy capacity.

At the same time, they are increasingly interested in businesses that can benefit from rising domestic consumption, healthcare demand, and long-term productivity improvements. These themes align with broader global trends around digital transformation and resilience.

Ultimately, the conversation has shifted from whether Vietnam can grow to whether investors can access that growth efficiently, transparently, and at scale. Foreign institutional investors can play a much broader role than simply providing capital. One of their most important contributions is improving market quality.

Firstly, greater participation can enhance market liquidity and price discovery while helping broaden the investor base. This is particularly valuable as Vietnam seeks to deepen its capital market and reduce reliance on retail participation alone.

Secondly, foreign institutions often bring higher expectations around governance, transparency, and disclosure. As active shareholders, they frequently encourage improvements in board oversight, communications, risk management, and capital allocation discipline. These improvements can benefit the overall market ecosystem and increase confidence among both domestic and international backers.

Thirdly, foreign institutions can help drive the development of more sophisticated financial products and investment vehicles, including exchange-traded funds, bond funds, infrastructure funds, and sustainable finance products. This diversification supports a more balanced financial system and provides businesses with a broader range of long-term funding sources.

The potential pool is significant. PwC projects that global assets under management could increase from $139 trillion in 2024 to $200 trillion by 2030, underscoring the importance of positioning Vietnam as a credible destination for these long-term allocations. Private markets are also expected to represent more than half of asset-management industry revenues by 2030.

Importantly, institutional investors bring not only capital but also expectations. Their due diligence, stewardship, and reporting requirements can encourage companies to strengthen board oversight, minority shareholder protection, and sustainability-related disclosure. These improvements can benefit the market as a whole, including domestic investors.

Vietnam has already made important progress in improving foreign investor access. The easing of the full pre-funding requirement for foreign institutional investors and the introduction of a formal failed-trade mechanism were central to FTSE Russell’s recent decision to upgrade Vietnam’s stock market.

Going forward, however, long-term investors are likely to place greater emphasis on predictability, governance, and market infrastructure than on access alone. Institutional financial backers typically allocate capital over multi-year horizons and therefore require confidence in regulatory consistency, shareholder protection, disclosure standards, and market transparency.

Rather than relying solely on incentives, policymakers may wish to focus on strengthening the overall investment environment. Continued enhancements in settlement infrastructure, custody arrangements, foreign exchange mechanisms, securities lending frameworks, and protection could all contribute to making Vietnam a more attractive destination for long-duration capital. The objective should not be to encourage investors to stay through administrative measures. Rather, it should be to create a market environment where they choose to remain because of confidence in the market’s long-term fundamentals and operating framework.

One key priority in the next 3-5 years is continuing to modernise market infrastructure. Efficient clearing and settlement mechanisms, risk management tools, and further alignment with international market practices will remain important.

A second priority is strengthening corporate governance and disclosure standards. Accelerating the adoption of international reporting practices, improving transparency, and ensuring consistent enforcement can help increase confidence.

Thirdly, Vietnam would benefit from expanding the supply of quality opportunities. This includes encouraging more high-quality listings, supporting state-owned enterprise equitisation, and increasing market depth.

Finally, developing a stronger domestic institutional investor base, including pension funds, insurance investors, and professional asset managers, will be critical. Deep and resilient capital markets are typically supported by a healthy balance between domestic and international institutional participation.