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Headlines:
One Man, Two Hats, Ten Percent Growth
Brussels Bets Big on Hanoi
Crypto Gets an Invitation and a Cover Charge
Chips Get Homegrown
BYD Battery Dreams
Apple’s Shadow Grows Over Bac Ninh
Gold Standard on the Horizon
Vingroup’s Gravity Well Drags VN-Index Into Spiral
Rising Sun Sets on Record Profits
Silicon Valley Dips Into the Credit Gap
Jailbird Tycoon Takes Victory Lap at KR Embassy
Tourism Flex Puts the Rest of Asia on Notice
From Sweatshop to Servers
Beach Town Dreams of Silicon Sheep
One Man, Two Hats, Ten Percent Growth
The Communist Party handed To Lam another five-year term as general secretary and he’s promising 10% yearly GDP growth, the most ambitious economic targets Hanoi’s floated in years. The former security boss, who took over after Nguyen Phu Trong’s death last July, wrapped up the five-yearly National Congress almost two days early. He has already merged ministries, slashed bureaucracy, and stacked the newly-elected Politburo with allies from the security services and his home province of Hung Yen. The makeup of the new Politburo makes it seem that he’s also going to make a bid for the presidency; we’ll be watching.
Read more: Inquirer
Brussels Bets Big on Hanoi
Brussels and Hanoi are shaking hands on a “Complete Strategic Partnership”. The real will be access to rare earths, gallium, and tungsten deposits that Beijing currently has its eye on, as well as a bigger toehold in semiconductors where Intel and Amkor are already making their stand. The draft document that was inked contains what appear to be a few subtle digs at Washington’s tariff habits and Moscow’s Ukraine adventure, but the subtext is China as Europe is looking for supply chain insurance, and Hanoi seems happy to be able to play both sides while collecting checks.
Read more: Modern Diplomacy (EU-Vietnam cooperation), Reuters (minerals and chips deal), VIR (Costa visit)
Crypto Gets an Invitation and a Cover Charge
A five-year pilot to license up to five domestic crypto exchanges comes with a hefty entry fee of 10 trillion dong ($400 million) in charter capital. Techcombank and its securities arm TCBS have already thrown their hats into the ring, and a handful of other banks are circling as they eye the limited slots. An estimated 20 million Vietnamese citizens already hold crypto wallets on offshore platforms like Binance and OKX, apparently generating ~$600 million in daily trading volume that Hanoi is unable to either tax or track.
Read more: CoinCentral
Chips Get Homegrown
The country’s first domestically owned semiconductor testing and packaging plant is coming to Bac Giang province, and is expected to open in 2027 with ambitious plans for scale. Deputy Science Minister Bui Hoang Phuong is clear that Vietnam is a player in packaging and testing, but since foreign companies have been running the show, its time for Vietnam to move up the value chain.
Read more: VIR
BYD Battery Dreams
Kim Long Motor is betting $130 million that it can move from assembling vehicles to creating the guts of electric ones (batteries), with a helping hand from China’s BYD. The plant in Hue will start at 3 GWh of yearly capacity making cells for commercial EVs like buses and trucks, then will look to double that number by adding passenger car batteries to the mix. BYD is expected to bring the technical know-how and Kim Long will foot the construction bill.
Read more: Reuters (battery plant), VIR (partnership)
Apple’s Shadow Grows Over Bac Ninh
Chinese tech giant Luxshare-ICT wants to drop another $2 or 3 billion into Bac Ninh province, doubling down on its bet that the north is going to be the place to be when Cupertino comes calling. The Apple supplier, which has already dropped more than ‘a bil’ and runs three factories in the province has 50,000 workers churning out earbuds, chargers, and smartwatch parts, says it needs 100 hectares more space. It’s looking at a move to Que Vo 2 Industrial Park since its current digs at Nam Son-Hap Linh are getting cramped.
Read more: The Investor
Gold Standard on the Horizon
The Prime Minister has called on the central bank to draw up plans for a national gold exchange by month’s end. SJC gold hit VND 178 million/ tael this week, riding global volatility to record highs and trading about 10% above international prices - exactly the kind of spread that you’d expect without transparent price discovery. The government ended its monopoly on gold bar production last October. With corporate bonds sluggish, real estate inflated, and deposit rates stuck in the basement, households have been piling into gold just as sellers are refusing to part with inventory. A well-run exchange would offer a common reference price in line with global benchmarks assuming, of course, that vested interests currently profiting from the opacity don’t find ways to gum up the deal.
Read more: Vietnam News (gold trading platform), Vietnam News (SJC gold price surge)
Vingroup’s Gravity Well Drags VN-Index Into Spiral
The VN-Index wrapped up its seventh consecutive losing session, shedding nearly 100 points to end up just over 1,800 in the deepest slide since late 2018. This time the macro story hasn’t cracked, the bigger deal is a wearing thin of patience for Vingroup’s conglomerate sprawl. Foreign investors dumped a net VND 1.8 trillion in their heaviest selling in nearly two months. The stocks most punished were primarily the same banking shares that foreigners had previously touted as growth plays.
Read more: Vietnam Insiders (analysis), The Edge Malaysia (hidden risk)
Rising Sun Sets on Record Profits
Japanese companies are putting up their best outlooks since 2009. Two thirds expect to be in the black this year. Manufacturing is leading the way at almost 75% foreseeing profitability on export demand for electronics, metal, and paper. Non-manufacturing is a laggard, and the tourism, retail, and mining sectors are fighting to crack 50%. Despite that, more than half of firms say they plan to expand operations over the next one to two years, the highest rate in Southeast Asia for the second year in a row.
Read more: VnEconomy (Japanese firms profit high), VnExpress (business optimism)
Silicon Valley Dips Into the Credit Gap
Tala is betting $5 million that underbanked millions are going to prefer app-based loans to “friendly neighborhood” loan sharks. The US fintech, backed by Google Ventures and PayPal Ventures, has chosen Vietnam as its eighth market. The twist is that Tala can’t actually lend money itself under local law, so CIMB Bank is going to manage the handouts while Tala supplies the tech (for a fee, natch). The loans carry $1,200 maximum, 61-day terms, and everything is done through an app.
Read more: VIR
Jailbird Tycoon Takes Victory Lap at KR Embassy
Trinh Van Quyet, convicted stock manipulator, former FLC chairman, and the man who nearly cratered Bamboo Airways, is back doing diplomatic meet-and-greets. Last week he joined FLC executives at South Korea’s embassy in Hanoi, presenting Ambassador Choi Youngsam with a model Bamboo aircraft as he waxed eloquent about aviation partnerships. Choi was gracious and apparently unbothered that Quyet’s March 2022 arrest for the fraudulent appropriation of assets and stock manipulation triggered a corporate meltdown that forced FLC to offload the airline in May 2023, only to buy it back again in September of the same year. Bamboo Airways, which once operated 30 aircraft including wide-body planes for intercontinental routes, now plans a Seoul investment roadshow in April and wants to rebuild its fleet by adding eight to ten planes annually through 2030.
Read more: VnExpress
Tourism Flex Puts the Rest of Asia on Notice
Foreign tourist arrivals rose by a fifth last year (to just over 21 million) to make Vietnam the world’s fastest-growing major destination. The rest of the world limped along at about 4% growth. The country sits alongside Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and Japan in the double-digit growth club, and head and shoulders above the Asia-Pacific average of 6%.
Read more: Asia News Network
From Sweatshops to Servers
The digital economy hit $72 billion in 2025 to make up 14% of GDP. It’s remarkable progress since 2020 when Hanoi blessed a national digital transformation plan that promised to move the country beyond assembly lines and IT outsourcing. The numbers show that the plan is working - digitalization has crept into finance, trade, and even public administration in a way that it still hasn’t in other Southeast Asian countries.
Read more: VIR
Beach Town Dreams of Silicon Sheep
Apologies to PKD fans for the headline, but Da Nang has been busy pitching itself as a hot future tech hub, as it’s been working feverishly to lure international investors at a recent investment forum in Switzerland. The city (better known for beach blankets than balance sheets) has introduced what it calls the country’s first International Financial Centre and will talk about it’s plans for “quantum technology” and green finance to anyone willing to listen.
Read more: Vietnam News
That’s it for this week!
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