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SK Group Pitches a Data Center

SK Group, which has $3.5 billion invested in Vietnam already, delivered a big pitch during National Assembly Chairman Tran Thanh Man's stop in Seoul. Chairman Chey Tae Won put forward a proposal for a large AI data center and floated a "Hanoi Forum" for AI, semiconductors and energy. Deputy PM Ho Quoc Dung also took time for a tour of SK Telecom's Haein GPU Center, where more than 1,000 Nvidia Blackwell B200 chips are powering Seoul's sovereign AI push. Samsung and LG Innotek were also courted. Two-way trade was $89.5 billion last year, and both governments are keen to see $100 billion this year and $150 billion by 2030.

Read more: Vietnam Insiders (trade), Vietnam Insiders (ODA), VnEconomy (possible sites), VnEconomy (Korean investors)

China Now Takes a Quarter of Seafood Exports

Seafood exports were $8 billion in the first eight months of 2026, and that’s an increase of about 12 percent from last year. The buyer mix is changing a little though, and now China and Hong Kong are taking more than a quarter of the total. Those markets were responsible for about about three-fifths of the sector's growth, and it was helped by demand for shrimp, pangasius, and crabs. Sales to the US stayed flat at $1.24 billion, and the EU total also dropped a bit to $749.9 million.

Read more: VnEconomy

Hanoi Asks Paris for EUR235.6M Satellite Loan

To Lam is going from Moscow to Paris, where Hanoi is asking the French government for a EUR235.6 million loan so that it can buy the VNREDsat-2 earth observation satellite. The deal with Airbus has been in limbo for the best part of a decade because of financing hurdles. Macron's most recent (2025) state visit resulted in 15 agreements that were worth about EUR9 billion, and now the France-Vietnam Business Council is looking into the North-South high-speed railway and a resurrected civilian nuclear program. It’s possible that approval of the loan and the un-stalling of the satellite deal after eight years will re-invigorate the relationship.

Read more: Vietnam News (rail and nuclear pitch), Vietnam News (university branch), Tuoi Tre (Paris visit), Vietnam Insiders (trade), Intelligence Online (Airbus financing)

Nissha Unwinds Stent Deal After 105 Days

Japan's Nissha bought 60 percent of USM Healthcare Medical Devices Factory in May to build a Southeast Asian contract manufacturing business for cardiology stents and orthopedic devices but it’s already sold the entire stake back to USM. Nissha says its post-merger review uncovered improper bookkeeping involving circular transactions that predated the purchase and was initiated by USM staff without its knowledge. Outside experts are still looking into the thing, but Nissha is trying to figure out the final financial result of the sale. Caveat emptor.

Read more: App Dealroom

Novaland Sells Assets to Keep Debt Current

Novaland has unloaded four of its assets worth VND11.3 trillion, taking care of almost three-quarters of their VND15.6 trillion disposal plan that’s intended to keep its lights on debt payments current. Five more properties are still for sale; agreements are in place for VND3.9 trillion of them. Standing property inventory stood in excess of 39,000 units during Q2 as buyer interest was down through the month of May. Credit is tighter too; developers sold almost VND4 trillion of bonds in August at an average coupon of 12.2 percent.

Read more: Vietnam News

Vietnam and Russia Ink Oil Reserve Deal

To Lam and Vladimir Putin have agreed to a framework for building a strategic oil reserve, and its the headline result of Lam's three-day state visit to Moscow. They also opened a laboratory together at the Vietnam-Russia Tropical Center by way of a video link. Lam met Zarubezhneft chief Sergei Kudryashov to talk about their shared four decades of joint oil ventures, including Vietsovpetro, and spoke with AFK Sistema founder Vladimir Yevtushenkov about high-tech investment. Putin dangled visa-free entry for Vietnamese citizens "in the near future" but didn’t go as far as offering any sort of a timetable.

Read more: The Moscow Times (nuclear power), VnEconomy (visit), Voice of Emirates (security)

Grab Drivers Plan a Two-Day Log-Off

A recent story tearing through Vietnam is of the VND19,500 ($0.74) that was left in a local drivers pocket after taking a VND37,000 ($1.41) GrabCar fare. That’s of course, little more than half of what the passenger paid after platform fees, insurance and tax were taken off the top. Grab applies a "flexible app usage fee" to take fees from the drivers that changes with time, location and demand. Drivers say that makes earnings impossible to predict and, as a result, are planning to refuse trips on September 12 and 13 in protest.

Read more: Tuoi Tre

Russian Tourists Fill the Beaches

Russia has become Vietnam’s third-largest source of foreign visitors. The first seven months of 2026 saw 863,500 arrivals. That’s almost four times the figure a year earlier. Vietnam Airlines has added a fourth weekly Hanoi-Moscow flight, Vietjet is opening routes from Da Nang and Nha Trang, and Aeroflot will begin flying from Moscow to Phu Quoc in October. Anex Vietnam also expects to carry 13,000 to 15,000 charter tourists to Phu Quoc.

Read more: Tuoi Tre

2G Airwave Auction

With the country's 2G networks closing on September 15, the Science and Technology Ministry is auctioning off three paired 900MHz blocks so that they can be put to new use. Bidding for each 15-year license starts at VND1.056 trillion ($40.2 million). Operators will be allowed to buy up to two blocks; they’ll need to put down VND55 billion for each. Viettel has already retired its 3G network, while VinaPhone and MobiFone continue to keep 3G going alongside their 4G and 5G offerings.

Read more: Developing Telecoms

Taiwan Runs Its First Trade Deficit

Taiwan ran its first quarterly trade deficit with its southern neighbor in early 2026 as its imports of Vietnamese electrical machinery, appliances and components saw a gain of 173 percent through May. That deficit reverses a decades-old pattern in which Taiwan traditionally sent components south for cheap assembly. Vietnam's share of global AI hardware trade went up from 1.2 percent in 2015 to 12.4 percent in 2025, which HSBC says was the steepest increase by any economy during the decade. Manufacturing and processing were responsible for $17.91 billion in foreign investment in the first half of 2026, almost two-thirds of all new and expanded capital.

Read more: Vietnam Insiders

Bamboo Airways Ex-Chair Barred Over Tax Debt

The tax authority of Gia Lai has asked immigration police to stop Nguyen Ngoc Trong (more commonly known as “Sam”), from leaving the country until Bamboo Airways ponies up VND44.06 billion ($1.7 million) in back taxes. Sam is listed as the airline’s beneficial owner and held two stints as chairman. The investor group he represented gave the carrier back to former owner FLC Group last year after admitting that its financial and management problems were beyond their ability to handle. He stepped down as chairman in November but remained on the board. Bamboo Airways currently flies a single aircraft and has stopped regular domestic service. The ban is expected to be lifted once the debt is settled.

Read more: VnExpress

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Hanoi Trades Tax Holidays for Talent and Tech

Politburo Resolution No. 10 tells foreign investors the old deal is off. Hanoi is done competing firstly on tax breaks now that the Global Minimum Tax has more or less removed the advantage that approach previously brought. Instead, officials are offering to co-fund infrastructure, subsidize R&D and technology transfers, and pay to train the engineers needed by multinationals, while fast-tracking visas and work permits for semiconductor, AI and data center projects. Registered FDI was $38.06 billion in the first seven months of 2026, up 58 percent from the year prior, and disbursed FDI was $15.2 billion, the highest seven-month total in five years.

Read more: VnEconomy

Samsung's Plants Print More, Keep Less

Samsung's four plants raked in $17.3 billion of Q2 revenue, up 20 percent, but combined profit was down almost a fifth to $996 million as its smartphone business took a hit. Thai Nguyen's SEVT, the flagship phone plant, saw profit drop to $361 million from $571 million, as margins were slashed from 9.1 percent to 4.8 percent. Bac Ninh's SEV lost almost a quarter of its profit (margins similarly down to 5.8 percent from 9.2 percent). The pressure came from upstream, as global smartphone shipments dropped 11 percent in the weakest Q2 since 2013. A memory chip shortage also pushed component costs up. Not every plant suffered however - display maker SDV saw its best margins since Q3 2023, and HCMC's SEHC grew profit more than 20 percent to $94 million on $1.5 billion of revenue.

Read more: Tuoitre, VnExpress

Deputy Health Minister Detained in Bribery Case

Deputy Health Minister Tran Van Thuan, 56, has been held on a bribery charge under Clause 4, Article 354 of the Penal Code. That makes him the highest-ranking person caught so far in the Viet My Medical investigation. Thuan, an oncologist who ran K Hospital before joining the ministry in 2020, is accused in a case that came to light in July with the arrests of Viet My chairman Bui Chan Phuong, director Ha Van Nam, and accounting chief Tran Thi Hong Hanh on smuggling and accounting charges. Phuong ran three companies in Vietnam, five in Singapore and three in Hong Kong, cycling medical equipment and drugs through the offshore network to inflate prices before selling them on to Vietnamese hospitals. Police are still tracing the money and other officials involved.

Read more: Tuoitre

CP Vietnam Cracks Korean Chicken Market

C.P. Vietnam sent its first shipment of processed chicken to South Korea after more than half a decade of effort that began with the $250 million CPV Food Binh Phuoc complex. The company was required to fill out two questionnaires of about 1,000 pages each and hosted South Korean quarantine and food safety inspectors on-site for half a year under an eight-step assessment. The market opened when Seoul and Hanoi each allowed two companies to trade processed chicken, and C.P. Vietnam was the first Vietnamese firm to do what was needed to get a foot in the door. Its chicken now ships to eight markets, including Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Russia.

Read more: Vietnam Investment Review (plant), VnEconomy (approval), VnExpress (next steps)

Qualcomm Wants Vietnam in Its AI Top Three

Cristiano Amon told General Secretary To Lam that Qualcomm is treating Vietnam as a "high-priority" in its Asia plans and hopes to make the country its third-largest AI R&D hub. The chipmaker already runs an R&D center in Hanoi and has worked with Viettel and VinSmart for two decades already. Lam wanted more, though, pushing for more technology transfer, management know-how, and ties to Vietnamese universities/ suppliers so local firms move up the value chain instead of just playing host foreign engineers. Qualcomm's interests fit Politburo Resolution No. 10 (mentioned in the first story, above), which is moving incentives from tax breaks toward R&D and talent development.

Read more: VnEconomy

Toyota Commits $283M to EVs in Phu Tho

Phu Tho's provincial government handed Toyota Motor Vietnam an amended investment certificate as it upgraded its factory there to a $283 million project with capacity for about 52,000 vehicles a year. The new permit adds electrified vehicle assembly to a plant that has spent decades building gasoline-powered Camrys and Vios sedans, in addition to the stamping and painting workshops meant to support future CKD models. Construction is expected to start in May, which puts Toyota years behind VinFast, whose EVs are already on the road.

Read more: VnEconomy

Tay Ninh Gets $3.5B Data Center Pitch

A three-party consortium of SAIGONTEL, World Vista United, and SAIF Eagle II gave Tay Ninh's People's Committee a Letter of Interest for a data center built to Tier IV specs, including “5 nines” uptime, direct liquid and immersion cooling, and racks dense enough to draw 150kW each. The pitch foresees latency of less than 18 milliseconds to Singapore, which is an indication that AI workloads are in the crosshairs. No permits have been issued and no financing has closed yet, however, so for now it is just a letter of interest. Construction is expected to be started late this year with commercial operations starting next year.

Read more: Vietnam Investment Review

Dong Nai to Build $2.29B Airport Metro Link

A government decision is giving Dong Nai Province, not HCMC, the job of running a 44.5-km metro extension to Long Thanh Airport as a public-private partnership. The VND60.26 trillion ($2.29 billion) build would be done in two phases, first a 7.1-km stretch from Suoi Tien to the new administrative center, then a further 36.3 km to the airport. It will require about VND4.32 trillion in resettlement costs to buy land and move people out of the way. Construction is slated for 2026 to 2030, which would get it open about six years after the Ben Thanh-Suoi Tien line started as the city's only metro. Long Thanh airport itself is expected to open on December 1.

Read more: VnExpress

Crypto Rule-Breaking Costs

Decree 284/2026 took effect Tuesday, with fines of VND200 million ($7,671) for mishandling crypto account data and a mechanism to allow regulators to suspend trading for up to 12 months for repeat anti-money-laundering failures. A skipping of customer identity checks will attract fines of up to VND120 million; operating without internal AML policies gets a VND200 million ceiling, in addition to the forced surrender of illicit gains. Chainalysis estimates 2025 taxable crypto activity in Vietnam at $8.1 billion, which is equal to about nine percent of the government's $89.9 billion expected revenue and the sixth-highest ratio on the planet. Payments account for $5.2 billion of that, nearly two-thirds of the total, dwarfing $1.8 billion in profits and $1.1 billion in income.

Read more: Tuoitre, VnEconomy (global ranking)

Hanoi Wants All Permits Online by 2027

Resolution 258/NQ-CP is putting the order in to make every “eligible” administrative procedure available by way of an online portal by sometime next year. Paperwork will be expected to be submitted only once and can be reused between agencies in a push that will support the government's double-digit growth hopes through 2030. The Ministry of Finance is also rewriting the 2017 SME law, which would raise the revenue threshold for SME status to VND400 billion ($15.7 million) and allow micro-enterprises with revenue under VND10 billion pay tax on turnover instead of profits. Neither change will affect the cost of shuttering a company - dissolving a long-dormant company can run to costs of as much as VND100 million ($3,800) once back taxes, license fees and late-filing penalties are considered, which is about 20 times the cost of what it typically costs to get a company registered in the first place.

Read more: VnEconomy (Resolution 258 text), Vietnam Insiders (SME law draft), Tuoitre (dissolution costs)

SHB Dangles 9.2%

SHB pushed its six-month deposit rate to 9.2 percent, up 0.2% in two weeks, even though Agribank pays just four percent for the same term and Vietcombank offers a relatively paltry 3.5 percent online. VPBank raised its six-month online rate to 8.8 percent. The State Bank of Vietnam is pushing commercial lenders to funnel cash toward small and medium businesses, with 12 banks registering VND408 trillion ($15.6 billion) in credit programs. Lending rates for SMEs have dropped 0.2 to 0.7 percentage point, even as deposit costs have been climbing. What these rates might tell about the health of the system will be left as an exercise for the reader.

Read more: Tuoitre

Can Tho Airport Cuts Fees to Win Back Airlines

Can Tho International Airport now runs a grand total of zero international routes, even thought the Department of Construction says it has the capacity to handle more traffic than it currently has. The proposed fix is a two-year, 50-percent cut in takeoff, landing, and air traffic control fees. The Ministry of Finance killed an earlier plan to subsidize airlines directly as it said the idea was inconsistent with the State Budget Law. City officials are betting that tourism might be able to do what subsidies couldn’t. Can Tho brought in 10.5 million visitors through the end of August, but the bigger threat is Long Thanh, the new airport being built outside Ho Chi Minh City which is, of course, aimed squarely at international routes.

Read more: Tuoitre

Autonomous Vehicle Trials at Hoa Lac

The Hanoi People's Committee signed off on a 24-month trial allowing for autonomous buses, robotaxis and delivery robots to be unleashed at Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park. The vehicles will use LiDAR, HD 2D and 3D maps and AI on an 11.5 km route. Buses get an eight-passenger cap, robotaxis four. Speeds are limited to 40 km/h, and operations will be suspended during heavy rain, fog, thunderstorms or flooding. Each vehicle needs a licensed safety supervisor onboard ready to grab the wheel. Registration, license-plate and inspection rules will be waived inside the zone, and commercial fares are banned for the entire trial. The Department of Science and Technology says it will evaluate results after the 24-month window before deciding next steps.

Read more: VnExpress

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.

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BNP Paribas, Kookmin Eye Techcombank Pie

BNP Paribas and KB Kookmin Bank are reportedly talking (separately) about buying a slice ofTechcombank in a deal that could bring in $2 billion and end the lender's long hunt for a foreign strategic partner. Both of them deny anything is afoot, but word is that Techcombank wants to fetch two times book value, according to people familiar with the talks. That price would be about a 55% premium to its last close before the news broke. Shares rose as much as 7% Wednesday. The 30% foreign ownership cap for banks means a 15% stake would use half the room left for outside investors, a scarce prize in a market where global lenders have circled local banks for years without being able to land a deal of this size. Techcombank is Vietnam’s third-largest privately owned bank by assets.

Read more: Live Euronext

VN Passes China as US’s Biggest Trade Headache

The surplus with the US reached $114 billion in the first half of 2026, edging past China's and trailing only Mexico despite an economy a quarter Mexico's size. Chinese goods are getting an effective US tariff of 23.2%, Vietnamese goods 6.5%, and importers from Apple to Lululemon have voted with their supply chains, by pushing US imports up 40% year-on-year to $123 billion. Customs data through mid-August show exports of computers and electronics rebounding almost 12% in the first half of the month to $7.32 billion, helping narrow the trade gap. Standard Chartered is betting on the momentum, expecting to see 9.5% GDP growth this year and 11% next, after an 8.4% second-quarter print beat their 7% forecast. Washington still hasn’t ruled on how much product is really Chinese made with a Vietnamese label, but that’s a story we’ll be watching.

Read more: VnEconomy (exports), VnExpress (GDP).

Hanoi Cuts Taxes 30% for Small Business

The National Assembly passed a deal that will cut personal and corporate income tax by 30% for 2026 and 2027 for individuals and businesses earning up to VND10 billion ($380,000) yearly. That metric covers almost every household business and more than four-fifths of registered enterprises. The relief has already been put in place - it came into effect the same day it passed with no phase-in, pilot provinces, or anything else to put a toe in the water. Full speed ahead. Finance Minister Ngo Van Tuan thinks the cost to the state budget will be about VND3.19 trillion ($112 million) in 2026 and VND3.51 trillion ($134 million) in 2027.

Read more: VnEconomy (minister), VnEconomy (proposal)

Reimagined Oil Rules for Aging Fields

Fields brought online between 1986 and 2015 are now 15 to 30 years into their productive lives and declining fast. The amended Petroleum Law is trying to address that problem with incentives for marginal, clustered, and nearly exhausted blocks. The legislative rewrite will let contractors build offshore wind and solar inside existing petroleum contract areas and for the first time will give them the right to own, trade, and sell carbon credits from carbon capture and storage, with proceeds counted against recoverable costs. Approval procedures are also being shortened, field development plans will be able to replace old pre-feasibility/ feasibility studies, and Petrovietnam is being given more decision-making power. The law will come into force on March 1.

Read more: VnEconomy (law details), The Investor (spending forecast), VnEconomy (timeline)

Shrimp Exports Lose on Tariffs to Ecuador, India

Washington's new Section 301 rates, in force since July 24, split the seafood trade into two groups. Ecuador, India, and Indonesia pay 10%. Vietnam pays 12.5%. Once anti-dumping and countervailing duties are added on top and the total tax bill for major shrimp exporters is going to be about 19.6%. That’s going to be healthily more than what rivals in Ecuador, Indonesia, and Thailand will be lumbered with. VASEP's Le Hang says the spread will be enough to move order books for standard frozen shrimp, where buyers really switch suppliers on cost alone.

Read more: VnEconomy

Data Center Pipeline Passes $5B

Since February, four consortiums have announced more than $5 billion in data center projects. The biggest are G42's $2 billion tie-up with FPT, VinaCapital, and Viet Thai at Saigon Hi-Tech Park and a $2.1 billion AI facility from Accelerated Infrastructure Capital and Kinh Bac City Development. That one is expected to be fully funded by the end of Q1 2027. Starmason added $480 million for a 60MW hyperscale complex in April, and Singapore's Evolution, Hathor, and Frontier committed $509 million for a 52MW site chasing Uptime Tier IV certification. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City together host about 73MW of operational capacity already today, but power is the number one bottleneck, as a 100MW project in either cluster currently needs to wait two to three years for new supply.

Read more: VnExpress

HCMC Plans Driverless Metro to Long Thanh Airport

Ho Chi Minh City is planning to break ground in early September for a ~46 km long metro line from Thu Thiem to the Cam Duong depot in Dong Nai. The trains are designed to run up to 120 kph and will have GoA4 automation, meaning no driver and no attendant is needed. Phase one builds 14 of the line's 18 stations at a preliminary cost of VND134.169 trillion ($5.3 billion), excluding land clearance. The city is using a build-transfer contract that will be repaid with land and state budget money once construction finishes in 2030. The route connects with six other rail lines, including the planned North-South high-speed railway, and puts its final station inside Long Thanh airport, which should finally open to commercial flights at the beginning of December.

Read more: VnExpress

Hanoi Tells Chinese Investors to Bring the R&D

PM Le Minh Hung met with Chinese investors in Hanoi and asked them for less low-margin assembly and more R&D/ technology transfer. The meeting produced 44 proposals for ministries to chew through. Texhong, which has already brought more than $1.8 billion of muscle into projects in Dong Nai and Quang Ninh (and now makes about a quarter of the country's yarn output), told Deputy PM Pham Gia Tuc it is shifting to green production and wants Hanoi to promise access to clean energy. TCL, in Vietnam since 1999 with four plants, wants to grow into high-tech and audiovisual electronics. Tuc promised stable power and better logistics, which is exactly what investors want to hear from Hanoi.

Read more: VnEconomy (PM), VnEconomy (Texhong), The Investor (TCL), Tuoi Tre (trade)

Hanoi Arms Itself to Cut Off Foreign Platforms

Decree 327/2026/ND-CP gives authorities the legal switch to block foreign telecom, internet, and cloud services that fail to set up a local office, refuse to store user data domestically, or ignore takedown orders. No grace period was written into the rule. It also allows for “cybersecurity forces” to request temporary suspension of payment accounts and digital wallets connected to fraud, fake/ rented identities, or unauthorized transactions in foreign currencies or digital assets. Every internet provider and system operator will have just 24 hours to hand over any requested data, or three hours if authorities say its an emergency.

Read more: VnEconomy

Micro-Firms Fold Fastest as Real Estate Sours

Nearly a quarter of micro-enterprises shut down in 2025. That’s more than double the closure rate for small and medium companies and almost five times the rate for large companies. Real estate fared the worst at 24% followed closely by hotels and restaurants at 23.5%. New registrations and reactivations also dropped in every size category, so the churn wasn’t offset by new market entrants. To be fair, some companies were able to grow, however. Nearly 43,000 businesses scaled into a bigger size class by 2026, and the micro-to-SME transition rate has risen to about 9% from 7.5%. Graduation into the large-enterprise bracket stayed stuck below 1%, where it’s been sitting for years.

Read more: VnEconomy

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.

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The Memo is published weekdays - Cambodia (every Monday), Myanmar (Tuesday), Laos (Wednesday), Vietnam (Thursday) and Thailand (Friday). The Thailand edition is free in its entirety; the others usually abbreviated for non-paid subscribers.

Please go to https://www.mekongmemo.com/account to select country editions you would like to receive without affecting your overall subscription status.

Hanoi Chases 10% Growth as Trade Balance Slips

GDP was reported 8.18% in the first half of 2026, one of the country's strongest showings on record and well ahead of Malaysia's 6% and China's 4.3%. Citi raised its full-year forecast to around 8%. Hanoi still wants at least 10%, which is a pace that might make for uncomfortable comparisons with the Southeast Asian boom before the 1997 financial crisis. Manufacturing was reported to have grown by more than 10%, and investment has kept growing across state, private, and foreign channels. The weak bit is, unfortunately, demand. Household consumption, almost two-thirds of GDP, is only recovering modestly, retail sales are growing more slowly than a year ago, and the goods trade balance slipped into deficit early in 2026 before widening through June.

Read more: Bloomberg (growth warning), VnEconomy (capital policy), VnEconomy (exports)

Hanoi Squeezes Bank Margins as Credit Outpaces Deposits

Agribank, Vietcombank and VietinBank have rolled out a combined $6.8 billion in credit packages priced 1 to 2 points below their normal lending rates, after PM Le Minh Hung told banks to make cuts. The banks are being squeezed from both sides. Credit growth reached nearly 9% by end-July while deposits grew only 5.75%, and system-wide bad debts are near $12 billion, up 17% from December.

Read more: Vietnam Investment Review (bank comments)

Property Swallows a Quarter of the Loan Book

One in four dollars the banking system has lent out is in real estate. Property credit was VND5.146 quadrillion ($196 billion) at the end of June, up 8.3% since December, and grew roughly in line with total credit, which rose 8.98% to VND20.26 quadrillion by end-July. Almost all of the exposure is in medium- and long-term loans, while bad debt in the sector climbed 10.5% even as the system-wide bad debt ratio eased to 3.31%. The State Bank says it will keep directing credit toward its priority sectors, including rental housing and large projects that are expected to have spillover effects.

Read more: VnEconomy

US-Bound Containers Up 8% as China Volumes Drop

US container imports from Asia fell 5.3% from a year earlier in July to 1.82 million TEUs, with China down 7.8% to 944,270 TEUs as importers front-loaded before the next tariff deadline. Vietnam moved the other way, shipping 282,846 TEUs to US ports, up 8.2%, and widening its lead over South Korea, which slipped 1% to 206,089 TEUs. Through the first seven months, the swing is milder. Asian import volumes are down less than 1% to 11.87 million TEUs.

Read more: Port Technology

HCMC Nears FDI Target Five Months Early

Ho Chi Minh City pulled in $9.8 billion in foreign direct investment over the first seven months of 2026, gaining almost 45% on the year and already reaching nearly 90% of its $11 billion full-year goal. Science and technology projects accounted for 467 deals worth $557.7 million, still a sliver of the total but the category which mandarins have been keen to talk up. Manufacturing is keeping pace too, as the processing and manufacturing sector grew 11.2%, ahead of the city's 10.7% industrial production index, as exports notched $57.84 billion.

Read more: VnEconomy

Keppel Pitches HCMC on Data Centers

Keppel's real estate CEO Louis Lim told HCMC Chairman Nguyen Van Duoc that the Singaporean group wants to expand its $4 billion Vietnam portfolio, anchored by Saigon Centre and Saigon Sports City, into data centers and other tech-adjacent sectors. The pitch comes on the heals of G42's $1 billion AI data-center commitment to the city. City officials were doing some pitching of their own, trying to convince Keppel to build next-generation facilities as HCMC tries to cast itself as a regional innovation and digital-economy hub. Keppel also asked for city help clearing investment red tape on existing projects. No figures, no sites and no timelines were discussed alongside the data-center talk.

Read more: The Investor

EVFTA Exporters Face Brussels' Residue Rules

Six years into the Europe-Vietnam FTA, 99% of tariff lines to the EU are duty-free and two-way trade got to almost $74 billion (end-2025). Exporters in Ho Chi Minh City are hearing a less celebratory message, though, because they say the real barrier is now chemistry, not customs. France is using a zero-tolerance policy on pesticide residues, Brussels wants all packaging recyclable by 2030, and coffee, rubber and wood shipments now have to prove their supply chains are deforestation-free.

Read more: Tuoi Tre

Starlink Launches With a 600,000-Terminal Cap

Starlink went live with household plans at $43.30 a month and hardware kits from $331, which are prices well above the sub-$10 mobile broadband most users currently pay for service from Viettel, VNPT or MobiFone. The pilot license caps the network at four gateways and 600,000 terminals, which is only about 2.5% of the market. Regulators are putting the project forward as a gap-filler for maritime areas, remote provinces and emergency response, not as a head-on fight with fiber and/or the mobile telecom incumbents.

Read more: VnEconomy

Carbon Credits Find a Singapore Buyer

Resolution No. 235/NQ-CP activates the Article 6 carbon trading agreement Hanoi and Singapore signed in 2025, clearing emission-reduction projects to sell into Singapore's CIX and ACX exchanges. The Foreign Ministry will do the paperwork for an official start date, but the legal plumbing is complete. Developers working on projects that meet international standards will be able to register credits with a guaranteed cross-border buyer. Singapore firms that might otherwise be facing a carbon tax get a respite from a nearby supplier. Hanoi has not yet published how project approvals will work.

Read more: VnEconomy

Hanoi Puts a Sell-By Date on State Companies

Decision 40/2026/QD-TTg gives ministries until August 31 to file restructuring plans for state-controlled companies from 2026 to 2030. The decree replaces an existing compliance checklist with a financial-efficiency test, meaning land banks, return on equity and future earnings potential will all be count toward valuation in addition to book assets. Land-rich state firms could see valuations move the most dramatically, since Decree 57 now forces the value of yearly leased land-use rights into the calculations.

Read more: Vietnam News

2027 Deadline for Highway EV Chargers

The Department for Roads has given provincial authorities until January 1, 2027 to install charging stations at every expressway rest stop, with at least 10% of parking spaces wired to charge EVs. Provinces are expected to report on progress by August 25. Any rest stop that was operating before October 5, 2024 will be expected to comply, retrofitting existing infrastructure if necessary.

Read more: Vietnam News (charger rules)

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To Lam Leaves Canberra With Seven Pacts and a Kangaroo Deal

To Lam departed Australia with seven cooperation agreements and three joint statements. The headline deal is a five-year digital economy pact for AI, semiconductors, cross-border data flows and undersea cable investment. Finance Minister Ngo Van Tuan also met Treasurer Jim Chalmers in Sydney to move a 2024-28 financial cooperation MoU forward and line up coordination for APEC 2027. Coast guards, border forces, health ministries and vocational education agencies each got their own deals, in addition to an amended air services protocol and an agriculture MoU. Two-way trade was more than $14 billion in 2025, which is a little below a $20 billion target, and Hanoi gave Australian kangaroo and deer meat market access that’s going to be worth up to half a million AUD (~US$350,000), a year to exporters.

Read more: SCMP (kangaroo deer meat), Vietnam News (APEC 2027 hosting), Vietnam News (EQ Resources Turnbull), TechNode Global (digital pact signatories), Tuoitre (trade growth)

Drone Scare Snarls Tan Son Nhat Flights

Tan Son Nhat briefly stopped flights twice after pilots reported drones while approaching and leaving Ho Chi Minh City. Accounts disagree on the exact times, flight numbers and altitude. Tuoi Tre said dozens of flights were affected and three emergency declarations followed, but VnExpress put the disruption at 22 flights. The scare comes as officials are working to set up a national aviation security and facilitation committee. It is more bureaucracy, but it seems like it might come in handy.

Read more: Vietnam News (financial center pitch), VnEconomy (financial center roadmap), Tuoitre (drone timeline), VnExpress (flight disruption), VnEconomy (aviation security committee)

HCMC Tax Holiday Takes Aim at Singapore

The Vietnam International Financial Center opened this month in Ben Thanh, Saigon and Thu Thiem wards. The zones offer zero corporate income tax through 2030 and a flat 10 percent after that, which is being compared favorably with Singapore's 17 percent. Nguyen Huu Huan, vice chairman of the center's Operating Agency, said the legal legwork is done and the first membership applications will be due this month. Most young financial centers need five to seven years before capital shows up, but HCMC is aiming for several billion dollars in year one, then $10-15 billion a year, pulled first from global investment funds and international bond issuance instead of (slower) FDI. No word yet on which global institutions have applied.

Read more: Tuoitre, VnExpress (SIFEM partnership)

Bac Ninh Inherits Dongguan's Old Job

Fable Lubricants opened its first plant in Ho Chi Minh City in 2017 chasing customers out of Dongguan. By 2023 it needed a second one in Bac Ninh, where Chinese factory owners now arrive "in droves," according to founder Fu Mingdong. Some Chinese media already call the province the "Dongguan of 20 years ago." At Sembcorp's VSIP parks, the number of Chinese tenants rose from about one in 11 in 2021 to about 15 percent in 2025. At Hai Phong's DEEP C zones, they went from less than a tenth before the pandemic to about a fifth now. The arrivals are not the T-shirt stitchers of yesteryear - Luxshare and Goertek are growing their electronics production alongside the older labor-intensive crowd as Hanoi's semiconductor strategy leans on Chinese packaging giants like JCET and Tongfu. Beijing's Gao Jinlong said that China and Vietnam were "highly complementary," which is perhaps a nice way of to say that Vietnam brings cheap labor and engineers while China brings packaging technology and scale.

Read more: Vietnam News (Xi visit statement), Thinkchina (China import)

VinSpace Books a SpaceX Lift for 2027

VinSpace, the nine-month-old aerospace arm of Pham Nhat Vuong's Vingroup, has reserved a spot on a SpaceX Transporter rideshare mission in 2027 to put the country's first privately built satellites into orbit. VinSpace, capitalized at 300 billion dong (~$11.5M), is 71 percent owned by Vuong personally; Vingroup owns another 19 percent. Neither the number of satellites nor the contract value was published, and VinSpace has yet to say what the hardware will do beyond validating its own technology in orbit. The deal comes after Hanoi's February decision to let Starlink operate domestically, a move some analysts read as tariff diplomacy aimed at Washington, and comes as Vingroup is pushing further from real estate and retail into aerospace, telecom satellites and air cargo. Vietnam has managed two satellite launches previously, in 2008 and 2012. Both of the devices were government-run telecom birds.

Read more: AP News (founding date), Bangkok Post (value chain strategy), Qz (six business sectors), DW (signing date)

Hanoi Retires Doi Moi After 40 Years

Resolution 19-NQ/TW, adopted by the Party Central Committee's third plenum, formally retires the market-opening model that has run the economy since 1986. The Politburo's framing says Doi Moi has done its job. GDP per capita was up to roughly $5,000 in 2025 (more than the Philippines at $4,100 and close to Indonesia at $5,200, but still about a third of the global average and two-thirds of Thailand's level). The new resolution swaps cheap labor, capital and resource extraction for science, technology, data, talent and the private sector as growth drivers, and recasts the States role from controller to market-maker.

Read more: VietnamNet (global GDP rank), VnEconomy (net-zero 2050)

Hanoi Wants to Raise the Tax-Free Ceiling Tenfold

The Ministry of Finance is proposing to lift the revenue threshold for tax-exempt household businesses and small enterprises from VND1 billion to VND10 billion (~$381,000), four months after Decree 41 set the lower limit. The draft also proposes a 30 percent reduction in personal and corporate income tax for 2026 and 2027 for firms under that ceiling, and would raise the cap for simplified revenue-based tax filing from VND3 billion to VND10 billion a year. A VCCI survey found that almost three-fifths of household businesses are struggling with volatile input costs, and about a third are short on capital and staff.

Read more: VnEconomy

G42 Wires $1 Billion Into HCMC Server Farms

Abu Dhabi's G42 signed a $1 billion deal with FPT Corporation and Viet Thai Group to build three data centers, and joined a $2 billion hyperscale AI project in Ho Chi Minh City. Sembcorp's StarMason venture with BB Holdings has also won approval for a 90MW site of its own, and the IFC has floated up to $3 billion more for digital infrastructure. Southeast Asia already makes up about half of all data center capacity under construction in Asia-Pacific; Malaysia and Thailand lead the pack.

Read more: VnEconomy

Banks Are $103B Short on Deposits

The gap between outstanding loans and deposits has widened to VND2.7 quadrillion, or $103.3 billion, as credit growth has outrun deposit growth every year for the past five. The State Treasury raised only $709 million in 25 bond auctions in July, filling barely more than a quarter of what was offered; yields crept up across the curve. Seven months into this year, the Treasury has banked only $7.65 billion, or two-fifths of its 2026 target. ACB CEO Tu Tien Phat is pitching dollar loans at around 4 percent a year, roughly 6 percent once exchange-rate risk is priced in, to exporters who he thinks are flush with foreign-currency revenue, and five- to seven-year corporate bonds to everyone else. Vietravel chairman Nguyen Quoc Ky is not sold, warning that foreign-currency borrowing carries its own exposure. Luc wants VND700 trillion in infrastructure financing to pay for 18 projects over three years, separated from bank credit entirely so it stops competing for the same shrinking pool of capital.

Read more: Tuoitre (infrastructure financing plan), VnEconomy (bond auction yields)

Da Nang Bets $617M on Port and Airport

Da Nang's People's Council approved VND6.2 trillion, or $240 million, to finish shared infrastructure at Lien Chieu Port, the piece needed to move the city's petroleum and liquid cargo terminals out of Da Nang Bay and clear the way for outside investors to build their own berths. Hours later, ACV Da Nang said it will spend VND9.9 trillion, or $377 million, adding 42,000 square meters to Terminal 1, a building that has been running over capacity since it opened in 2011 at a cost of $51 million. Construction on the airport work is expected to run from Q3 2027 to Q1 2029. Da Nang has also floated a separate $10 billion plan to upgrade Chu Lai airport, 90 kilometers south, through 2050. No timeline yet on port terminal bidding.

Read more: VnEconomy (2026-2030 timeline), VnExpress (cargo terminal)

Cold Chain Costs Double the Rich-World Norm

Logistics eats up 16-20 percent of GDP, roughly double the 8-10 percent that the US and EU pay and more Thailand and China's 13-14 percent, according to World Bank figures. Refrigerated container rates rose from around $2,800 to a peak of $7,800 in May and June, and are still more than $5,000, squeezing seafood and produce exporters. Industry groups want more exporters to partner with professional logistics firms instead of building their own infrastructure, and to use digital tools for temperature monitoring, traceability and shipment tracking.

Read more: Vietnam News

Hai Phong Busts a $10-Million-a-Day USDT Pipeline

Hai Phong police held 32 people, nine on money laundering charges, after cracking a Chinese-run network that allegedly moved $7 million to $10 million in USDT a day for online gambling operations. Ringleader Hoang Hai Van reportedly cycled four to five digital wallets a day and swapped them all out weekly to bury the trail, while Vietnamese recruits opened bank accounts in their own names for about $190 a month. Investigators froze 2,003 accounts at 36 banks worth more than $114 million. The gambling operation is estimated to have generated tens of trillions of dong before being shut down.

Read more: Tuoitre

Changan's Deepal Badge in Hue Paperwork

Trademark filings show Changan Automobile registering the Deepal S05 and S07 nameplates, the clearest sign yet that the Chinese automaker hopes to build the models at Kim Long Motor's plant in Hue City. Both are C-segment SUVs offered as battery-electric or extended-range hybrids, with the S07's top BEV variant rated at 620km and its EREV version claiming a total range of more than 1,100km. Changan and Kim Long Motor signed a cooperation deal in early 2025 to build five- to seven-seat passenger cars at the Hue plant, but Kim Long has yet to confirm Deepal will be the badge on the line. That would be the fourth Chinese-branded EV maker arriving into a segment where VinFast, BYD and others are already fighting for the same buyers.

Read more: Tuoitre

Da Nang Starts Cutting Steel on Sub-Hunter

Song Thu Corporation has started cutting steel in Da Nang on what officials say is the country's largest and most advanced domestically designed frigate. The vessel is an anti-submarine ship built by Vietnamese engineers with weapons and gear mostly locally. The vessel is expected to carry AESA radar, air-defense missiles and advanced anti-ship missiles, much of it from state-owned Viettel Military Industry and Telecoms Group and defense ministry factories. Completion is expected in three years. Deputy Defense Minister Pham Hoai Nam attended the ceremony. No name for the ship yet.

Read more: Tuoitre (deputy minister quotes), Yahoo (South China Sea)

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.

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Hanoi Needs 11.9% in H2 to Hit 10%

Vietnam grew 8.18% in the first half of 2026, leaving the government needing 11.9% in the second half to reach its target of "at least 10%," a pace the Party Central Committee re-confirmed at its late-July plenum. The manufacturing PMI had its strongest showing since February (52.9) in July, and factories are (net) hiring for the first time in five months. Outstanding credit was reported at VND20.15 quadrillion, (~$770B), up a little more than 8% since the end of 2025, as the central bank has steered credit toward 18 major infrastructure projects. None of it is going to add up to 11.9%, no matter how you sharpen your pencil. Standard Chartered lifted its full-year forecast to 9.5%.

Read more: VnEconomy (plenum strategy), The Investor, VnEconomy (industrial output), VnEconomy (credit growth)

FTSE Ends Frontier Status September 21

FTSE Russell will publish its official constituent list on August 21, and about 30 stocks will join the Secondary Growing Market index when the change takes effect a month later. MB Securities calculates the passive money at $1.5 billion, though only about a tenth is expected to arrive in September. The rest will show up in three later phases through September 2027, with a fifth at the March review and two larger tranches coming in June and September. Vingroup tops the buy list at an estimated $46.4 million, little more than 1% of its recent trading volume, ahead of Vinhomes at $16 million. MBS expects large-caps to soak up early buying as mid- and small-caps wait for the 2027 rounds, when index weightings get adjusted based on how much the earlier money moved prices.

Read more: Vietnam News

Singapore and Seoul Lead $38 Billion FDI Haul

Registered foreign direct investment was $38.06 billion through July, up 58% from July 2025, with newly licensed capital more than doubling to $21.05 billion for 2,429 projects. Singapore put in $7.5 billion, more than a third of all new capital, followed by South Korea at $5.61 billion and Hong Kong at $2.91 billion. Manufacturing absorbed $11.58 billion of the new money, while capital contributions and share purchases increased more than three-fifths to $6.58 billion over 1,815 deals. Disbursement was $15.2 billion, up almost 12% and the highest seven-month figure in five years, 80%+ of it went into processing and manufacturing. China was listed a distant fourth with $1.73 billion, well behind Hong Kong.

Read more: VnEconomy (China ranking), VnExpress (outbound investment)

A $93 Billion Import Bill From China

In the year to July, merchandise trade was $659.58 billion, but the mix has a soft center because imports rose almost 35% to $340.05 billion against almost 22% export growth, leaving a $20.52 billion deficit. Production inputs, machinery and raw materials made up almost all imports. China was the supplier of $138.6 billion of the imports, widening the deficit with Beijing almost 40% to $93 billion. The United States took $104.7 billion in exports, giving VN a $91.4 billion surplus there.

Read more: VnExpress

LG Innotek Anchors Hai Phong's $3.2 Billion

Hai Phong took about a tenth of the country's $38 billion FDI haul. The city gave investment certificates to 13 projects and signed two industrial-park cooperation deals, totaling about $3.2 billion in committed and proposed capital. The anchor tenant is LG Innotek's $1 billion semiconductor plant at Nam Dinh Vu Industrial Park's Free Trade Zone subdivision. FDI into the port city was an estimated $3.26 billion in the January-July period, up almost 72% year-on-year. Hai Phong hosts 1,868 current FDI projects from 41 countries.

Read more: VnEconomy

Carrier Docks in Da Nang, Tariffs Simmer

The USS George Washington and its Carrier Strike Group 5, with more than 5,000 sailors and air wing personnel aboard, spent seven days at Da Nang's Tien Sa Port. It’s the fourth US carrier call since normalization and the longest one to date. The visit came at a moment of some frustration for Vietnam, as it has only been days since Washington put a new 12.5% Section 301 tariff on imports because of forced-labor concerns. The foreign ministry said the tariff misread the country's efforts and enthusiastically referenced a decree that bans imports made with forced labor. Party chief To Lam sounded polite but irritated in a meeting with INDOPACOM commander Admiral Samuel Paparo, asking Washington to wrap up its Section 301 investigations and avoid "extreme trade remedy measures," as he repeated his invitation for Trump to attend APEC 2027 in Hanoi.

Read more: Vietnam Insiders (past carrier visits), Vietnam Insiders (welcome ceremony officials), Tuoitre (personnel breakdown), Vietnam Insiders (forced-labor decree), VOV News

HCMC Data Centers Set to Triple Capacity

Ho Chi Minh City's data center capacity is expected to grow from 33MW to 101MW. UAE's G42 signed a $1 billion deal with FPT and Viet Thai Group for three data centers and is also part of a separate $2 billion hyperscale project in the city. Singapore's Sembcorp, through its StarMason joint venture with BB Holdings, has approval for a 90MW facility. The building spree comes after the government's January 2025 decision to fully open the sector to foreign ownership. Colocation vacancy is currently almost 35%, above the Asia-Pacific average, so tenants have room before demand catches up.

Read more: Tuoitre

Private Money Muscles Into Airport Construction

The aviation buildout is increasingly becoming a private-sector story. Masterise Group has capitalized a wholly owned aviation arm at VND29.3 trillion ($1.12 billion) to build the $7.45 billion Gia Binh International Airport in Bac Ninh, which the National Assembly approved in December 2025. Sun Group, which set the template with Van Don's BOT airport, has created a new subsidiary for work on the planned Phan Thiet Airport and is continuing its VND22 trillion ($846 million) expansion of Phu Quoc ahead of APEC 2027. On the airline side, Sun Phu Quoc Airways went from zero to nine aircraft between August 2025 and February 2026, and Vietravel Airlines raised its charter capital to VND2.25 trillion ($85.67 million) in December. The country brought in a record 83.5 million passengers in 2025, up almost 11%, and is hoping to see 95 million this year.

Read more: Vietnam News, Tuoitre, VnExpress, VnEconomy, VnEconomy

Hanoi Lines Up 18 More Yak-130s

During a visit by Vladimir Putin to oe of his factories, Irkutsk Aviation chief executive Andrei Soynov said that Hanoi is finalizing an 18-aircraft Yak-130M order that would make it the upgraded variant's first export customer. The deal follows an earlier purchase of 12 baseline Yak-130s valued at almost $350 million. Two have already been lost, one in a November 2024 landing-gear accident and another in January 2026, so there are about ten still useable. The M variant adds an AESA radar, electro-optical targeting, improved self-protection and precision-weapons compatibility, turning a trainer into a light combat jet that is able to manage counter-drone work, air policing and reconnaissance without eating into Su-30 flight hours. Nobody in Hanoi has confirmed the contract.

Read more: Defence Security Asia

Vinhomes Plans 6,200-Hectare Ha Long City

Vinhomes published the master plan for its largest project to date, a 6,200-hectare development called Vinhomes Global Gate Ha Long that’s going in next to the UNESCO-listed bay that brings tourists to its karsts. Six districts of villas, townhouses, shophouses and high-rises will be built next to a future depot station on the Hanoi-Quang Ninh high-speed railway, promising a 23-minute run to the capital; the existing Hanoi-Hai Phong-Quang Ninh expressway is already in place. No opening date or unit pricing has been released.

Read more: Vietnam Investment Review

Techcombank Shops a $1 Billion Loan Offshore

Techcombank wants a $1 billion syndicated loan split into a $600 million three-year tranche and a $400 million four-year tranche. It would be one of the largest debt deals in Southeast Asia this year. No arranging banks have been named publicly, and no pricing has been offered. The proceeds are expected to be used for general corporate purposes, not a specific project or acquisition.

Read more: Bloomberg

BVBank's Near-Fivefold Jump Outpaces Big Banks

BVBank posted a massive 486% year-on-year increase in H1 pre-tax profit to VND547 billion ($20.82 million), with Q2 up about 25-fold (!) to VND332 billion, thanks to net interest income, not one-off gains. Loans grew a little more than 7% since January to more than VND83.3 trillion, and deposits rose almost 14% to VND81.3 trillion. ABBank booked VND3.02 trillion ($114.93 million), up 80% and already two-thirds of its full-year target, with a 0.55% NPL ratio and CAR above 12%, against the 8% regulatory floor. Sector leader Vietcombank grew almost 34% to VND29.22 trillion ($1.11 billion), still the biggest number in banking, just not the fastest-growing one.

Read more: The Investor

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.

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The Memo is published weekdays - Cambodia (every Monday), Myanmar (Tuesday), Laos (Wednesday), Vietnam (Thursday) and Thailand (Friday). The Thailand edition is free in its entirety; the others usually abbreviated for non-paid subscribers.

Please go to https://www.mekongmemo.com/account to select country editions you would like to receive without affecting your overall subscription status.

Deputy Ag Minister Held in Durian Export Probe

Deputy Agriculture Minister Hoang Trung has been detained and kicked out of the Communist Party after investigators accused him of writing illegal durian export rules, including "sub-licences," and taking "particularly large" bribes along the way. Three others were detained with him, including Nguyen Quang Hieu from the crop production and plant protection department and two officials accused of falsifying paperwork. Investigators say the setup ran through the ministry's Centre for Testing, Certification and Quality Services and two private firms, NhoNho Technology and Thuy Fruit. Neither company responded to requests for comment. The probe has been in the works since 2025, when eight people connected to the same case were detained.

Read more: Straits Times (budget damage), Tuoitre (prosecution)

PNJ Rations Cash Due to Diamond Buybacks

PNJ paid out $224 million buying back diamond jewelry in the first 20 days of July, almost four times the $60 million in revenue it booked over the same period. CEO Phan Quoc Cong admitted the company was under liquidity pressure and brought in a nationwide installment plan, with sellers getting 10 percent immediately and the rest spread over four months. Within a week, almost all sellers chose to swap gold and diamonds for new gold products instead of waiting for cash. Buybacks then shrank to $44 million against $53 million in revenue. The rush followed the early July arrest of Dang Ngoc Thao, former director of PNJ's gemstone certification arm P-Lab, in a case alleging that 28,000 diamonds were smuggled into Vietnam in 141 shipments since 2024. PNJ shares declined through four floor sessions before rebounding almost 7 percent.

Read more: Tuoitre

SBV Opens Lending Window for Three

The State Bank of Vietnam has opened a special lending channel for 18 infrastructure projects connected to three conglomerates, Vingroup, Sun Group and Masterise. Pricing and collateral terms have not been made public. The government is using China's RMB4 trillion stimulus in 2008 and 2009 as proof that directed credit can push big projects through, and while that comparison carries some weight, this is a different bet. Vietnam is concentrating exposure to three private groups inside a banking system already heavy with property loans, and the companies have not said how the money will be divvied up between the 18 projects.

Read more: VnEconomy

Vanguard and Blackstone Wire Up for Vietnam

Vanguard, Blackstone, UBS and Morgan Stanley have finished the technical arrangements needed to trade Vietnamese stocks through local brokers SSI Securities and Vietcap, according to the State Securities Commission. The SSC is also fast-tracking Circular 08, which would let foreign funds trade through global broker networks instead of requiring the opening of a local account first. That will remove a paperwork step that has long irritated index compilers who want to participate in Vietnam's upgrade from frontier to growing-market status. The VN-Index closed July 29 at 1,704.68, back above 1,700 after weeks of choppy trading. Foreign investors are still selling, though, with a net VND88 billion unloaded on HoSE that day.

Read more: Vietnam News (index lift), VnEconomy (foreign access)

Gas Power Comeback Costs

Decision 1882 sets a ceiling of VND3,410.64 per kWh (~$0.13), for gas-fired power. The calculation is based on a 1,008 MW combined-cycle plant running at 85 percent load with gas priced at $11.98 per million BTU and the number is anchoring PPA talks between EVN and generators that have spent years haggling over fuel risk. Under companion Decree 100, LNG plants online before 2031 will get a guaranteed minimum offtake of almost two-thirds of capacity during loan repayment periods of up to ten years, with fuel costs passed straight through to tariffs. Domestic gas projects arriving after that and before 2036 will get dispatch guarantees tied to extraction limits instead.

Read more: Tuoitre

Dong Nai Bets $600 Billion on an Airport City

To Lam has told Dong Nai to grow its economy 13.6 times over the next 35 years, from an expected $44 billion in 2030 to $600 billion by 2065, with Long Thanh International Airport as the centerpiece. The plan calls for 10 percent annual GRDP growth through 2045 and a Long Thanh-Nhon Trach airport city built for 2.5 million people. Dong Nai will benefit from Ho Chi Minh City-style special mechanisms on land, finance and hiring. The master plan runs on a 100-year horizon. Long Thanh is expected to open with capacity for 25 million passengers a year. Ambitious is the polite word.

Read more: VnEconomy (income target), VnExpress (airport cost)

Hanoi Sets Deadline to License the Crypto Shadow

Resolution 05 targets this year for the arrival of Vietnam's first licensed crypto exchanges, giving legal cover to a market that Chainalysis says was 17 million people and about $200 billion in capital flows between June 2024 and June 2025. Most of that money is currently moving by way of overseas platforms or peer-to-peer OTC networks. The Digital Technology Industry Law newly recognizes digital assets as legally protected property, but custody, token issuance and AML rules still need to be written (to say nothing of enforcement). Retail traders who can now open an overseas account with a smartphone will need identity checks and portfolio controls once licensed venues go live. The government has not yet named any exchanges or published operating rules, so “end of year” may still be optimistic.

Read more: VnExpress

Vingroup Takes Silk Road Show to Tashkent

Vingroup is building a "Vietnam Town" in Tashkent and running down nearly two dozen ventures in at least 15 countries. The conglomerate's real estate arm has long bankrolled everything from EVs to AI at home, but Vietnam's property boom has cooled and VinFast is still losing money, so the group is looking for revenue elsewhere. Uzbekistan's (authoritarian) government only started courting foreign capital in 2017, but it seems keen now on Vingroup's full playbook, with homes, malls, schools, hospitals and EV chargers built into one Tashkent district. Trade between Vietnam and Uzbekistan was $202 million in 2024,, and Hanoi elevated Kazakhstan to a strategic partner in 2025 as Central Asia looks past Russia. Washington's tariffs have also reminded Hanoi how much it leans on the U.S., which takes almost a third of its exports.

Read more: AP

VinFast Carries the EV Lead

Battery EVs made up more than a third of new vehicle sales in the first half (+71%), which is the highest share in Southeast Asia's four biggest auto markets. VinFast provided almost all of them. Thailand was a close second and Indonesia pulled up in third spot. Vietnam's registration fee exemption and 3 percent special consumption tax rate will run through the end of 2030.

Read more: VnExpress

Shopee, TikTok Shop Post $11B, Hike Fees

Shopee, TikTok Shop, Lazada and Tiki moved VND291.6 trillion ($11.07 billion) in GMV in the first half, with growth of 38 to 52 percent, from 613,900 stores selling 2.18 billion products. Livestreaming now drives about two-thirds of online spending. Shopee and TikTok Shop have both raised merchant fees, pushing some sellers to raise prices, and the National Competition Commission has asked the platforms to report on the impact. TikTok Shop is offering new sellers up to VND70 million ($3,200) in fee waivers this year, in addition to a 60-day commission and transaction fee holiday for craft-village and OCOP merchants signing up in the second half.

Read more: Vietnam News (seller program), VnExpress (market data)

Bamboo Airways Down to One or Two Planes

Bamboo Airways apologized for canceling and delaying flights in its domestic and international network, including a Da Nang to Macau route pushed back by almost three hours. The carrier's fleet has been reduced from eight aircraft at the end of last year to three on paper, with only one or two flying on any given day as it fights lessors over unpaid bills and debts. Passengers say ticket fares were taken from their accounts with no refund in sight, leaving some to buy new seats at higher prices while they wait. Bamboo says refunds are coming in the order requests arrive, but it has given no timeline.

Read more: Tuoitre

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Upper-Middle-Income Bar Met Four Years Early

The World Bank's July 1 update gets Vietnam into the upper-middle-income bracket for fiscal 2027, clearing the $4,636 GNI per capita floor four years ahead of the Communist Party's timetable. The reclassification rests on 2025 income data. The same cycle update also moved the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Jordan and Micronesia up a tier. The bigger number is set for the year 2045. Party targets call for high-income status by then, and the Academy of Finance calculates that Vietnam needs at least 5 percent average yearly GDP growth from 2026 through 2044. Interestingly, even 8 percent growth would only move the finish line up a single year. Upper-middle-income status will also start phasing out the cheap financing that came with the lower tier, just at the moment that Hanoi is trying to raise $1.2 trillion in private capital by 2030.

Read more: VnEconomy

SCB Sees 9.5% Growth, Below Hanoi Target

Standard Chartered Bank is expecting to see 9.5% GDP growth in 2026, a bigger print that UOB's 8.5% call, and SCB is crediting a manufacturing recovery, services and a wave of infrastructure spending for the lift. The bank also cut its inflation forecast to 4.4% and says that it expects the State Bank of Vietnam to hold rates steady. Nine and a half percent is still short of the double-digit figure Hanoi’s treated as a political imperative since To Lam became Party chief in mid-2024, however, but StanChart has penciled in 11% for 2027.

Read more: VnExpress (economist comments), Fulcrum (credit targets)

Chips Move Up On the Priority List

The Ministry of Industry and Trade wants semiconductors, rare earths, high-tech electronics and offshore wind added to a draft Law on Key Industries, moving chips into the same legal category as steel and railways for the first time. The Ministry of Justice published the dossier on Tuesday, the same day QTSC and the Singapore Semiconductor Industry Association signed a cooperation deal for business networking, R&D, technology transfer and workforce development.

Ho Chi Minh City isn’t waiting on Hanoi's lawyers. It wants 9,000 semiconductor workers trained by 2030, backed by a proposed $5 million chip design fund and a five-year personal income tax exemption for experts at Saigon Hi-Tech Park and for semiconductor startups. The city is already host to 54 semiconductor projects worth more than $5.1 billion.

Read more: VnEconomy (priority industries), VnEconomy (Singapore trade), Tuoi Tre (tax break), TechNode Global (FPT training deal)

US Halves Plywood Duty, Keeps China Locked Out

The US Department of Commerce cut its final antidumping duty on Vietnamese hardwood plywood to 90.12%, down from a preliminary 196.14%, after auditors spent June combing through the books of Nhat Duy and Trieu Thai Son. Their cooperation now is to the benefit of everyone else in the country. The duty will require a cash deposit of $90,120 on every $100,000 shipment, which is steep when compared against export margins of 5 to 6%, but survivable for an industry that shipped $9.46 billion of wood products into the US last year.

China got no such break. Its two biggest mills refused to answer Commerce's questionnaire, leaving the whole industry locked at a 187.27% dumping rate plus an 88.96% subsidy duty if the ITC finds injury by September 4. Indonesian suppliers settled on between 15.40% and 84.94%, with most at 18.10%.

Read more: Woodcentral (Indonesian rates), Fordaq (cash deposits)

Hanoi Prices a Crypto Trade

Decree 284, issued July 16, sets unlicensed crypto trading fines at VND 30 million to 50 million (about $1,140 to $1,900). Companies offering or advertising crypto services without a license will be liable for fines of up to VND 200 million ($7,600). The rules will come into effect September 1 and target the millions of Vietnamese using Binance, OKX and Bybit in a market that is ranked fourth globally for crypto adoption. The obvious problem is that the Ministry of Finance has not yet licensed a single domestic exchange, even though five applicants including VPBank-connected CAEX and Techcombank-connected TCEX cleared initial review in May. Deputy Finance Minister Nguyen Duc Chi says he’s aiming for a third-quarter launch.

Read more: The Block (company fines), TradingView (Bybit expansion), VnEconomy (RWA sandbox)

VinFast Bets on Hatchback to Break Even by 2027

VinFast delivered 17,955 vehicles in June, meaning that first-half volume was a heady 115,916 units, an almost three-quarter increase from a year earlier and the first time any automaker has cleared 100,000 domestic deliveries in a Vietnamese half-year. The company expects to break even at home by 2027 and turn a global profit shortly after.

The bet rests heavily on the VF 2, a VND188 million ($7,139!) hatchback that took about 29,000 orders in its first three days on sale. The optimism needs to perhaps be tempered by a Q1 net loss of VND28.1 trillion, almost three-fifths wider than a year earlier, and an unresolved North Carolina lawsuit that wants to reclaim the site of VinFast's planned US factory.

Read more: Bloomberg (Pham), Yahoo Finance (revenue outlook), Just Auto (factory plan)

Vietnam Airlines Adds 19 More 737 MAX Leases

Vietnam Airlines is leasing 19 more Boeing 737 MAX 8s on top of the 50 it already has on order, bringing its planned fleet of the type to 69. The aircraft will come from three lessors (10 from SMBC Aviation Capital, five from Phoenix Aviation Capital and four from Avolon). Deliveries start in 2028.

The narrowbodies are expected to fly domestic and short- to medium-haul international routes. They will crack open a narrowbody fleet currently made up entirely of Airbus jets. The carrier reported a VND3.95 trillion ($150.1 million) pre-tax profit in Q1 2026 but says performance has been hurt since April by jet fuel prices. Domestic passenger growth has stalled to almost nothing in the first half of 2026, but international traffic rose more than 15% to 26.2 million.

Read more: Aerospace Global News (fuel efficiency), Breaking Travel News (chairman), Tuoi Tre (route growth), VnExpress (cargo), Aviation Week (seat share)

Wage Council Backs Minimum Wage Bump for ‘27

The National Wage Council has backed a 7.8% minimum wage rise for January 1, 2027, up slightly over the 7.2% increase that took effect this January. Monthly floors would go up between VND340,000 and VND390,000 ($12.94 to $14.85) depending on region. Zone 1 includes Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Government approval is still pending, but if signed off, it would be the largest increase in two years.

Read more: VnEconomy

USDA Puts Cash Into Tilapia to Displace China

The USDA is funding a $15.6 million project in nine provinces in the Mekong and Red River deltas to lift tilapia output to 1.21 million tons and $1.25 billion in revenue by 2030. Exports to the US reached $53 million in 2025, up 173 percent year on year, making America the largest buyer. Hanoi's fisheries department is clear that the move is to try and partly replace what US importers currently buy from China.

Read more: Tuoi Tre

Grab Plugs Into EV Charging With EBOOST Stake

Grab has taken a stake in charging firm EBOOST, terms undisclosed, with plans to grow the network from about 2,500 ports today to more than 6,000 by early 2028. Almost half are expected to show up in Hanoi under a June 2026 agreement with the city's Department of Construction to build shared public charging that drivers can find, use and pay for through the Grab Driver app.

EBOOST went live inside the app in April 2026, and of the more than 400 ports connected to date, more than 70 percent of drivers who plug in once return within a week. Thousands more ports have been sized for electric motorbikes, the workhorse of Grab's driver fleet, to be rolled out in the next wave.

Read more: TechNode Global

Security Min's Tech Arm Takes On HCMC Metro

GTEL, the tech arm of the Ministry of Public Security, signed on July 17 to handle system integration and technology transfer for Ho Chi Minh City's metro network, starting with Line 2 and extending itself out to projects scheduled through 2030. The scope included signaling, power supply, fare collection and an eventual integrated control center for the planned 1,000km network. No foreign vendors were named and no procurement timeline was shared. City vice chairman Hoang Nguyen Dinh said raising the localization rate would cut costs and protect “nationally important infrastructure.”

Read more: VnExpress

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