Accelerating reforms

Viet Nam’s stock market is entering a new phase of development with higher requirements in terms of scale, quality, and sustainability, while maintaining its key role in providing medium- and long-term capital for the economy.

According to the Ministry of Finance, to achieve double-digit growth target in the 2026–2030 period, it is estimated that the total capital demand of the economy will be at least 38.5 million billion VND. Of this figure, state budget capital accounts for only 20%, while the remainder will be mobilised from social investment. In the context of gradually narrowing monetary policy space, the stock market is expected to become an important channel for mobilising capital to meet the economic development demands.

This task requires the stock market to accelerate reforms to develop strongly, stably, and sustainably, focusing on key tasks: completing institutions and improving the quality of the legal framework to ensure transparency, consistency, and alignment with best international practices; continuing to modernise the market and enhance operational capacity; and improving the effectiveness of inspection, supervision, and strict handling of legal violations to strengthen discipline and transparency and ensure fair, transparent, and efficient market operations.

At the recently held Conference on Stock Market Development 2026, Vu Thi Chan Phuong, Chairwoman of the State Securities Commission, said that the agency will focus on two key solution groups in the coming time, including developing both supply and demand of investment to make the stock market the primary channel for medium- and long-term capital mobilisation for the economy.

On the supply side, the State Securities Commission will implement solutions to support enterprises in raising capital, expand market scale across equities, bonds and derivatives, promote initial public offerings (IPO) linked with listing, accelerate equitisation and state divestment, and attract large enterprises as well as foreign-invested enterprises to participate in the market.

On the investment demand side, the State Securities Commission will focus on developing institutional investors, attracting foreign investors, and improving the quality of individual investors. At the same time, state management agencies will strengthen the supervision, inspection, and handling of violations to ensure fairness and transparency of the market.

Improving the quality of products on the market

As of March 2026, the number of trading accounts of investors in the stock market reached more than 11.6 million, exceeding the targets set in the Viet Nam Stock Market Development Strategy to 2030. By the end of 2025, stock market capitalisation had reached over 77% of GDP.

To significantly improve the quality of goods and expand both scale and depth of the market, the State Securities Commission said that it will shorten the time from IPO procedure completion to trading on the system to 30 days, closely linking the IPO process with listing activities to enhance liquidity and protect investors.

At the same time, it will support foreign-invested enterprises (FDI) in conducting public offerings and listing on the stock exchanges as well as attract leading private enterprises and large corporations to list, thereby increasing supply and diversifying market structure while contributing to improving investment portfolio quality. In addition, the State Securities Commission is orienting the development of a separate market for innovative start-ups, opening a new segment and helping technology and innovation-driven enterprises access capital in a more timely manner.

Alongside institutional and infrastructure improvements, enhancing investor quality is considered a crucial factor in strengthening stock market demand.

According to Nguyen Hang Nga, Chief Executive Officer of Vietcombank Fund Management Company, about 75–80% of current transactions on the stock market come from individual investors. Meanwhile, financial understandings among the investors remains limited, with most individual investors participating through direct stock trading and being strongly influenced by market sentiment.

In this context, improving personal financial capability, fostering goal-based investment thinking, and building long-term investment habits will not only protect investors but also contribute to developing the fund management industry, improving capital flow quality and reducing speculative behaviour in the market.

Noting that Viet Nam’s stock market is facing a major opportunity to attract strong international capital inflows, Thomas Nguyen, Director of Foreign Markets at SSI Securities Corporation, proposed several solutions to unlock capital flows by enhancing market accessibility and diversifying investment opportunities.

Accordingly, it is necessary to organise investment promotion events abroad, improve the quality of analytical reports, support enterprises in approaching foreign investors, and create connections between the domestic market and international investors to attract further foreign capital flow. At the same time, the market needs to be strengthened internally through developing customer networks, accelerating equitisation of state-owned enterprises, easing foreign ownership limits, supporting FDI enterprises, and improving the quality of goods.