FTSE Russell has officially upgraded Vietnam from Frontier to Secondary Emerging Market status, with formal inclusion effective in September 2026.
This milestone is the result of “Vietnam’s decisive and coordinated reforms, elevating the country’s standing on the global investment map”, says Dragon Capital, Vietnam’s largest fund manager.
The fund manager continued: “While FTSE’s decision is a well-deserved recognition of these efforts, we believe what is even more significant is that Vietnam does not view this as the final destination. For the first time, the government has laid out a comprehensive long-term strategy with specific actions to target FTSE Advanced EM and MSCI EM status by 2030.:
The priorities include:
- Reviewing foreign ownership rules to raise limits and remove unnecessary sectoral restrictions.
- Upgrading clearing and settlement infrastructure to support non-pre-funded transactions and introduce a Central Counterparty (CCP) model.
- Gradually allowing securities lending, controlled short selling, and same-day trading.
- Developing the FX market with hedging instruments to support foreign portfolio investors.
Dragon Capital said: “This upgrade comes at a timely juncture, as Vietnam continues to post one of the highest GDP growth rates globally: 7.85% in 9M25, including 8.23% in Q3. Supported by this strong macroeconomic momentum, we forecast corporate earnings growth of 21% in 2025 and a further 17% in 2026. YTD, the Vietnam Index has gained 30.3% in USD terms, with average daily trading value consistently exceeding USD 2 billion.
“With this robust foundation, the upgrade is expected to catalyse a new phase of market acceleration, underpinned by a significant pipeline of IPOs totalling more than USD40 billion over 2026–2028.
“We believe this marks only the beginning of Vietnam’s capital market transformation.”
