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Headlines:
Hanoi Comes Hat in Hand to Washington
Goodbye, Middleman
Decree 46 Puts Vietnam's Borders on Ice
Twenty-One Percent and Climbing
Moscow May Build What Tokyo Walked Away From
Vietjet Wants to Be Your Banker Too
Cheap Money Dries Up
Marriott Bets Big on the Saigon Side
Seven Routes to Nowhere (Yet)
The Price Tag on Dissent
Hanoi Comes Hat in Hand to Washington
Trade Minister Le Manh Hung wrapped a sixth round of tariff talks in Washington this week by meeting executives from Apple, Exxon Mobil, GE, AES, and Excelerate Energy, while his delegation inked MOUs to buy American crude oil, ethanol, and corn from Chevron, Marquis Energy, and ADM. The message was straightforward in that Vietnam now says it is ready to buy more US stuff (machinery, high-tech products, and energy) to narrow a trade gap that hit $153 billion in exports to America last year. It’s not a bad deal for either side - Vietnamese airlines need Boeing to hurry deliveries, the country's energy transition depends on imported LNG, and tech manufacturers are keen on predictability.
Read more: Straits Times, Vietnam Investment Review, Vietnam News
Goodbye, Middleman
The Ministry of Finance will now allow foreign investors to place orders directly through their existing global brokers without opening accounts at local securities houses. The reform is in answer to one of FTSE Russell's technical concerns in advance of a potential market upgrade in September. Foreign investors still need a securities trading code and depository account, but they’ll be able to skip the extra contracts, and fees, and other rigmarole that come with hiring a local broker. FTSE Russell reviews Vietnam's status regularly, and each delay costs the market another stretch in frontier limbo while Thailand and Indonesia continue to scoop up institutional money.
Read more: Vietnam News (Circular), Theinvestor (New regs)
Decree 46 Puts Borders on Ice
The Prime Minister ordered fixes to Decree 46, the food safety regulation that took effect in the last week of and promptly strangled import flows. Perishable shipments now have to deal with five to seven day delays for mandatory lab testing at gates that lack… (checks notes) …labs. The decree replaced lighter-touch rules from 2018, that just required spot paperwork, physical inspection, and safety checks before customs clearance. The trouble is that nobody published clear guidance on which tests to run or how the several involved ministries should divvy up the inspection responsibilities.
Read more: Vietnam News (PM Order), Vietnam Briefing
Twenty-One Percent and Climbing
Vietnam's industrial output jumped more than a fifth in January compared to last year, and all 34 provinces reported growth. Inflation held at 2.6%, and the purchasing managers index stayed above 50 for the seventh straight month. Manufacturers are trying to deal with input cost increases from material shortages, pushing selling prices up at the fastest clip since April 2022, but demand hasn't flinched yet. The momentum feels real enough, but a parallel 49% rise in imports suggests much of the factory boom still depends on parts coming from elsewhere.
Read more: Eneconomy (PM call), Marketscreener (Vietnam January CPI), Fibre2Fashion (factory output)
Moscow May Build What Tokyo Walked Away From
The nuclear dreams became hazier in January when Japan pulled out of the Ninh Thuan project, while saying the 2031 deadline is unrealistic. Japan was supposed to build Ninh Thuan 2 after winning the contract in 2010, part of a plan for 14 nuclear plants by 2030 that got shelved in 2016 over cost blowouts and post-Fukushima reconsiderations. Now Russia's Rosatom, already handling Ninh Thuan 1, could take over both facilities. A Russian win here would be one of Moscow's biggest commercial coups in Southeast Asia since Western sanctions kicked in, and would go a long way to boost its pitch elsewhere.
Read more: Fulcrum
Vietjet Wants to Be Your Banker Too
An “Asia-Pacific Aviation Financial Hub” was introduced at the Singapore Airshow last week, with Vietjet as founding member and a $6.1 billion in initial capital imagined envisioned. The facility, to be tucked inside HCM City's international financial center project, promises tax breaks, multi-currency payments and liberalized capital flows for aviation finance deals. Airbus and Boeing have signed on as honorary members, and Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce and CFM International all showed up for the launch. Vietjet claims that its nearly 600-aircraft order book is ideal to serve at the project’s anchor tenant, generating what the hub's chairman called "substantial long-term financing demand."
Read more: Vietnam News
Cheap Money Dries Up
Corporate lending rates are on the rise already up sharply this year from what was seen in the first half of 2025, as the central bank has chosen to hold its refinancing rate at 4.5% rather than ease. The U.S. Fed's January pause killed hopes for rate relief, keeping the dollar strong and the dong under pressure. Banks are now battling hard for deposits as their cheap current-account funding dries up, pushing deposit rates up another half point so far this year. For riskier borrowers in real estate and construction, rates are already touching 12%.
Read more: Theinvestor
Marriott Bets Big on the Saigon Side
Marriott International signed a deal with Masterise Group on February 2 to develop four hotels and branded residences totaling nearly 1,900 rooms in three cities. The package's centerpiece will be a Ritz-Carlton hotel and residences in HCMC, in what will be the brand's first Vietnamese outpost. Hanoi will see its first Marriott-branded property near the National Exhibition & Convention Centre, with a 494-room business hotel that is to include 3,000 square meters of event space. The fourth piece will be set in Can Gio, a coastal district south of Saigon, where a dual-branded JW Marriott and Four Points by Sheraton will anchor a 2,870-hectare ecotourism zone that is expected to reel in nine million annual visitors once a new expressway and bridge get it connected to Long Thanh International Airport. The projects are Masterise Group's formal entry into hospitality after launching its hotel division in 2025.
Read more: Vietnam Investment Review
Seven Routes to Nowhere (Yet)
Ho Chi Minh City is sketching out seven bus routes to Long Thanh Airport, gambling they'll be ready when the $1.4 billion facility opens for business in June. Three lines would start from transport interchanges including Tan Son Nhat Airport, while two each would originate from the former Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau province areas that got folded into greater HCMC last year. The Public Transport Management Center is still working with Dong Nai Province over basic details like which roads the buses will actually use and whether to bid out operators or just hand-pick them. Long Thanh is 40 km from downtown, but the expressway and metro links meant to feed it anre, as yet, unfinished. For the time being, passengers will have to rely on the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway and a pair of national highways. Good luck finding a taxi.
Read more: VnExpress
The Price Tag on Dissent
Human Rights Watch counted more than 160 political prisoners held through 2025, with courts jailing at least 32 people under Criminal Code Article 331 for raising land rights, corruption, or religious freedom issues on social media. The crackdown became more focused as the Communist Party consolidated power, targeting dissidents just as Hanoi was courting trade deals and getting reelected to the UN Human Rights Council. Vietnam still hasn't ratified the ILO convention on freedom of association it promised to adopt.
Read more: Human Rights Watch
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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