The event brought together senior government officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang, Deputy Head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Huynh Thanh Dat, HCMC Vice Chairman Nguyen Van Dung, and top executives from the stock exchanges of Vietnam, HCMC, Hanoi, and South Korea.
Opening the ceremony, Mr. Luong Hai Sinh, Chairman of the Members’ Council of the Vietnam Stock Exchange (VNX), recalled that exactly 25 years ago, at this very moment, Vietnam’s fledgling stock market rang in its inaugural trading session at the HCMC Securities Trading Center, the forerunner of today’s HOSE. What began with just two listed companies and four brokerages has since flourished.
By late June 2025, the market counted over 1,600 listed and registered companies, an average daily liquidity exceeding VND21 trillion, 82 brokerage firms, 43 fund managers, and more than 10 million investor accounts. A robust legal framework, sound market structure, and strict compliance regime have taken shape, covering equities, bonds, and derivatives. Vietnam’s stock market now ranks among ASEAN’s most dynamic, with leading capitalization and liquidity.
Mr. Luong Hai Sinh emphasized that as Vietnam pursues GDP growth of over 8 percent in 2025 and double digits thereafter, the stock market will remain a vital channel for mobilizing medium- and long-term capital for the economy.
Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang, in his keynote address, highlighted the market’s dramatic transformation, noting that its capitalization has surged from a mere 0.2 percent of GDP at inception to nearly 100 percent today. With over 1,600 companies and 10 million investor accounts, the bourse has evolved into a pivotal source of financing for the economy and an increasingly attractive investment avenue for both domestic and international investors.
“The stock market has channeled trillions of Vietnamese dongs into development investment, affirming its lifeblood role in Vietnam’s modern economy and cementing its place as a key pillar of the national financial system alongside banking and insurance,” Mr. Nguyen Van Thang underscored.
He called on the securities sector to advance comprehensive legal reforms, enhance operational safety and efficiency, strengthen oversight and enforcement, restructure market fundamentals, diversify products, and accelerate digital transformation. He also urged intensified investor education and deeper global integration, emphasizing that elevating Vietnam’s bourse from frontier to emerging market status is a top priority for attracting greater capital inflows.
Looking ahead, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang urged the securities sector to stay true to its guiding principles and press ahead with a core mandate of consolidating the stock market’s foundation and preparing it for its next phase of growth.
He emphasized the need to build a fully aligned legal framework consistent with international standards, ensuring market stability, transparency, and efficiency, while enhancing operational safety, streamlining administrative procedures, and strengthening oversight to uphold discipline and integrity. He called for deeper restructuring of the market’s pillars, with a focus on bolstering institutional investors, improving the quality of listed assets, and diversifying products and services to meet the evolving demands of market participants.
Digital transformation and modernization of IT infrastructure, he noted, must both facilitate effective State management and support the market’s dynamic development. Mr. Nguyen Van Thang also stressed the importance of raising public awareness, improving investor education, and fostering broad, substantive international cooperation to elevate Vietnam’s market standing.
Above all, he highlighted the urgency of implementing synchronized measures to secure the long-anticipated upgrade of Vietnam’s bourse from frontier to emerging market status, unlocking stronger inflows of domestic and foreign capital.
“With the solid foundation of the past 25 years, Vietnam’s stock market is poised to be upgraded, advancing toward sustained, vigorous growth and deeper integration,” the minister affirmed.
Corporate voices echoed this optimism. Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai, Chairwoman of Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Corporation (REE)—one of the first two firms to list on HOSE—reflected on the company’s journey from a State-owned enterprise constrained by central planning in the late 1980s to the first in Vietnam to undergo equitization in December 1993. REE’s pioneering HOSE listing in 2000, she said, unlocked new capital-raising opportunities.
“We believe the stock market not only provides efficient financing but also fosters transparency, liquidity, and sustainable corporate growth,” she affirmed. REE’s share price has climbed more than 4.3 times since its debut, and including dividends, shareholder returns have risen more than sixtyfold. She expressed confidence that an upgrade of Vietnam’s market will create even greater opportunities for businesses as the country enters a new era of growth with renewed confidence and ambition.
Mr. Don Lam, CEO of VinaCapital, stressed that the stock market has played a pioneering role in Vietnam’s economic transformation over the past quarter-century and will become even more crucial in achieving long-term objectives such as robust private-sector development and financial self-reliance. He pointed out that sustainable market growth hinges on institutional investors driving IPOs and spearheading new products such as pension, infrastructure, and real estate investment funds to foster greater transparency, liberalization, and global integration.
State Securities Commission Chairwoman Vu Thi Chan Phuong reiterated the regulator’s commitment to proactive and innovative reforms, completing the legal framework, strengthening oversight, streamlining administrative procedures, advancing digitalization, and safeguarding investors’ rights. She affirmed that the commission is working closely with relevant ministries to deliver synchronized solutions aimed at upgrading Vietnam’s stock market to emerging status in the near future.
