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| Ho Chi Minh City is striving to build and develop an international financial center, thereby promoting economic growth. |
Strategic move
Today (March 28), the Conference on Building a Financial Center in Vietnam is expected to be held by the Ministry of Finance in coordination with the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee and People's Committee in Ho Chi Minh City - the place chosen to build an international financial center. This is a necessary preparation for accelerating the process of building financial centers - one of the new growth drivers of the economy in the coming period.
“Vietnam’s decision to build an international financial center aims to promote a strong transformation process to become a dynamic economy, attract international investment capital flows and participate more deeply in the global financial value chain, making Vietnam an important link in the world economy,” Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc said at a recent seminar on developing financial centers in Vietnam held in Frankfurt, Germany.
To prepare for the construction and development of a financial center in Vietnam, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh led a working delegation to London (UK), Frankfurt and Luxembourg - three major financial centers of the world to learn from experience and "promote investment".
Many contacts have been made and at these financial centers, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh has called on experts and businesses to accompany Vietnam, becoming the first foreign investors present in Vietnam's international financial center. Dozens of banks, investment funds, associations, businesses, including "sharks" in the global financial world, such as Standard Chartered, HSBC, DZ Bank, Mountain Alliance AG, The CityUK... have expressed their interest and appreciation for this plan of Vietnam.
Even Swire (a British investor, which has invested in many projects in Vietnam, including the Empire City Project in Thu Thiem Urban Area - the area identified as the "core" of Ho Chi Minh City's financial center) has also committed to continue contributing to the development of this area.
Not only the above investors, since Vietnam planned to build financial centers, many investors have come. The most recent is Milcon Gulf, a large corporation in the fields of finance, investment and infrastructure development, with many projects worldwide.
In a meeting with Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Van Duoc at the end of February 2025, Mr. Sohail S Quraeshi, Chairman of Milcon Gulf Group, said that Milcon Gulf wishes to become one of the members participating in building an international financial center in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to Mr. Sohail S Quraeshi, in addition to international financial market investment sources in Europe, the US, etc., Milcon Gulf also represents financial investment sources from the Middle East. That is, the opportunity for Vietnam to welcome international financial "sharks" is not small.
More than once, domestic and foreign experts have asserted that Vietnam has a “golden opportunity” to build a financial center. The important thing is, how are preparations for this strategic move going?
Waiting for the breakthrough
Preparations are still being made to build and operate financial centers in Vietnam. Working groups to learn from international experience, including from localities, are continuing to be organized. A draft resolution of the National Assembly on building financial centers in Vietnam is also being developed.
And today, is a conference to discuss issues related to positioning, policy mechanisms, legal framework, institutions, human resources, infrastructure..., as well as preparations by localities for the construction and operation of financial centers in Vietnam.
Deputy Minister of Justice Nguyen Thanh Tinh, in a recent interview with the press, said that to succeed in building an international financial center, there needs to be specific, outstanding mechanisms and policies, a legal framework according to international standards, as well as high-quality human resources.
In fact, building policies for strategic investors is very important to attract long-term, quality investment capital from international financial “sharks”. This is more necessary than ever in the context of Vietnam’s lack of experience in building an international financial center. Moreover, the appearance of “sharks” also creates a push for global businesses, financial and non-financial investors to follow them to Vietnam. 
“According to the experience of successful international financial centers, this legal framework must ensure compliance with international standards in order to attract the participation of businesses, corporations, and financial companies around the world to participate in the market and to be able to compete with other international financial centers,” said Deputy Minister Nguyen Thanh Tinh.
When Mr. Sohail S Quraeshi works with the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City, one of his top concerns is also the legal framework. “We have to help our partners understand the legal issues in Vietnam so that they are ready to invest,” Mr. Sohail S Quraeshi said.
In fact, right from the beginning of the project to develop an international financial center, Vietnam was determined to build a financial center that meets international standards, is transparent, efficient, has a solid legal foundation, high-quality human resources, applies advanced technology, has a safe and sustainable investment environment... And above all, has breakthrough and outstanding institutions and policies.
In a recent meeting with US investors, Finance Minister Nguyen Van Thang once again affirmed this. According to the Minister, Vietnam is studying and building mechanisms and policies in the direction of "the most preferential and innovative possible", so that foreign investors, investment funds, financial funds and enterprises can participate in the construction and operation of financial centers in Vietnam.
According to the information, these breakthrough and outstanding mechanisms and policies may include controlled testing policies (sandbox) for business models applying technology in the financial sector (fintech); tax incentives, including personal income tax; visa and immigration incentives for experts; especially policies for strategic investors.
In addition to these policies, policies on human resource training and development, banking activities and foreign exchange management, capital market development policies, etc. are also proposed with many outstanding incentives, creating favorable conditions to attract investors to Vietnam to develop an international financial center.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/xay-dung-trung-tam-tai-chinh-gap-rut-chuan-bi-buoc-di-chien-luoc-d259595.html
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