Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s drive for double-digit economic growth in 2026 is forcing the country to confront a fundamentally different challenge: not just raising mountains of capital, but deploying it efficiently, lifting investment returns, and avoiding a macro blow-up as development pressures intensify.
From raising cash to deploying it
2026 has been marked as a defining milestone in Vietnam’s development trajectory, with the double-digit goal now backed by maximum political resolve.
To deliver that breakout pace, economists said the economy will need enormous fresh capital pulled simultaneously from the State, private, and foreign-invested enterprises.
Dr. Nguyen Minh Phong, former head of the Economic Research Department at the Hanoi Institute for Socio-Economic Development Studies, said the capital landscape in the coming years will grow increasingly complex and impose higher standards.
“The problem is no longer about simply scaling up capital mobilisation, it’s about managing how to raise it and where to direct it,” Phong stressed.
That will require tight coordination between macro policies and every stakeholder in the development chain, he said.
Phong warned that sticking with legacy growth recipes while chasing double-digit expansion could trigger inflation, balloon public debt, and swell bad loans across the financial system. The shift to a quality-and productivity-driven growth model is therefore becoming inevitable. In that transition, the digital economy has already emerged as a key engine, expanding at roughly 20% annually in recent years.
Economists argued that deep, quality-oriented investment must hone in on sectors with strong spillover effects. Alongside upgrading hard infrastructure like transport networks, developing soft infrastructure such as workforce quality, policy frameworks and, especially, national data systems, will be decisive. In the digital transformation age, data is a strategic resource that can optimise economic governance and management.
At the same time, cultivating large industrial conglomerates capable of leading supply chains could create powerful growth levers for key sectors.
Economists stressed that chronic public investment disbursement delays must be tackled, particularly the tendency for spending a bunch at year-end. They called for slashing administrative red tape, digitising project management, and imposing clearer accountability. Deploying public capital effectively from the start of the year would generate positive spillover effects, firing up business activity and supporting overall growth.
Overhauling the bourse
Alongside domestic resources, attracting and efficiently utilising international capital flows remains essential to support high growth. But to become a genuine magnet for global investors, improving the quality of Vietnam’s capital market has grown more urgent than ever.
A representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Vietnam said the financial system should operate as a “two-wheel drive mechanism”, with banks and capital markets complementing each other. Capital markets, particularly the stock market, are seen as a critical medium- and long-term funding channel that can help firms diversify their financing sources and lift governance transparency.
According to JICA, clearing ownership restrictions and upgrading technical conditions such as information disclosure language and international accounting practices are essential to building long-term confidence among foreign investors.
To lift market quality, experts also recommended reforming the initial public offering process. Instead of relying mainly on traditional auction mechanisms that often frustrate institutional investors, policymakers should consider globally recognised methods such as underwriting and book-building. These approaches could sharpen pricing and pull substantial capital flows from the primary market stage.
The development of an International Financial Centre and new financial products, including non-voting depository receipts, is expected to widen access to foreign capital.
As part of efforts to upgrade Vietnam’s capital market, JICA experts noted that they have worked alongside the State Securities Commission of Vietnam for more than a decade to strengthen the legal framework and supervisory capacity. The possibility of FTSE Russell upgrading Vietnam’s stock market to emerging market status is also a bullish signal, potentially opening the door to billions of US dollars in new foreign capital inflows.
However, they said upgrading the rating is not the ultimate goal; what is more important is improving the actual quality of the market, ensuring transparency, stability, and efficiency in pricing.
Overall, experts believe that achieving double-digit economic growth in 2026 is a significant challenge but entirely achievable if Vietnam successfully restructures its capital sources. Once institutional bottlenecks are removed and the capital markets become transparent and efficient, financial flows will naturally gravitate towards the highest value-added sectors, creating a strong impetus for the economy to advance further on its path to sustainable development./.
