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Headlines:
Hormuz Jitters Put Hanoi Over a Barrel
Hanoi's Double-Booking Problem
Hanoi Builds a Walled Garden for $200 Billion
Chemical Giant's Chairman Dug His Own Hole
Market Gets Ready for Its Close-Up
Factory Floor or Musical Chairs?
864 Candidates, 500 Seats, 99.64% Turnout
VinFast Doubles Everything
Hanoi Orders Its Banks to Bulk Up
Hanoi Dusts Off Its Nuclear Playbook
Selfie Drones Ground 83 Flights, Military Rolls Out the Jammers
Satellite Internet at Seven Times the Price
Hormuz Jitters Put Hanoi Over a Barrel
PM Pham Minh Chinh told his ministries on March 16 to guarantee uninterrupted fuel supplies and submit a plan by tomorrow (Friday) to cut petroleum taxes and fees, while also asking Japan for access to its crude oil stockpiles and requesting South Korea's help to keep crude imports running smoothly. The scramble comes as a result of Iran's blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has forced some shipping routes around the Cape of Good Hope, adding three to four weeks to transit times. Vietnam imports 85% of its crude oil from the Middle East (almost all from Kuwait), and the PM said the government would consider tapping budget reserves for price support if the conflict drags on. Domestic fuel prices have already risen sharply, and a survey by HCMC’s industrial zone authority found 22.5% of firms are adjusting production schedules and 11.7% are pushing back deliveries as logistics costs on some routes are up more than 30%.
Read more: Eneconomy (PM budget pledge), Vision Times (Japan-Korea diplomacy), Eco-Business ($594M solar savings), Eneconomy (investor confidence data), VnExpress (supply chain shift)
Hanoi's Double-Booking Problem
Vietnam and China held their first-ever "3+3" ministerial strategic dialogue in Hanoi on Monday, bringing together foreign affairs, defense, and public security ministers from both countries in a format neither has used with any other partner. Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung said the meeting was thanks to "special bilateral ties" and a "high level of political trust." The sit-down comes about a month after Lam's first meeting with President Trump in February, and just five days after US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer opened a new trade investigation targeting both Asian countries over industrial overcapacity. Chinese state media said the dialogue focused on "safeguarding political security," wording that typically means tightening control over civil society, plus "advancing defense and law enforcement cooperation" on cross-border trafficking and South China Sea disputes. The meeting also built on trade and supply chain integration agreements that were signed in April 2025, and now look more relevant as Washington turns up the heat.
Read more: Fdd (US trade tensions), Eneconomy (dialogue structure details), Eneconomy (Lam statements), CGTN (naval patrol activities), Eneconomy (port investment figures)
Hanoi Builds a Walled Garden for $200 Billion
Vietnam's finance ministry is coming up with rules to block citizens from trading on overseas crypto platforms like Binance, OKX, and Bybit as it launches a domestic licensing pilot that's attracted five firms, including affiliates of Techcombank, VPBank, and LPBank, plus stockbroker VIX Securities and conglomerate Sun Group. The pilot requires a minimum charter capital of 10 trillion dong (~$400 million), and caps foreign ownership at 49%, putting exchange licenses out of reach for all but the largest players. Authorities say they're worried about uncontrolled capital outflows in a market where traders moved more than $200 billion in digital assets in the 12 months through June 2025, putting Vietnam fourth globally on Chainalysis's adoption index. Most Vietnamese rely on foreign platforms since crypto isn't recognized as legal tender domestically, though owning it isn't illegal either. The first licensed exchanges could launch this month, redirecting one of the world's busiest crypto markets through a handful of state-approved gatekeepers while cutting off access to the global exchanges that built the market.
Read more: Theblock (Chainalysis ranking data), Bitcoin Magazine (March 2026 launch), Vietnaminsiders (Five firm names), Coindesk (Capital controls concern), Japantimes Jp (February resolution timing)
Chemical Giant's Chairman Dug His Own Hole
Police arrested Dao Huu Huyen, chairman of Duc Giang Chemicals Group, and his son Dao Huu Duy Anh, the company's vice chairman, for illegal apatite mining that dumped millions of tons of waste in Lao Cai Province's Tang Loong Industrial Park. The family, which owns roughly 41% of the firm privatized in 2003, allegedly mined hundreds of thousands of tons of apatite ore worth hundreds of billions of dong while keeping some transactions off the books and hiding revenue to dodge taxes. The CEO of Duc Giang Lao Cai Chemicals was also arrested. Three other executives are up on resource exploitation charges, and eight more are accused of assisting in the crimes, with four arrested and seven banned from leaving their homes. The stock is down 15% over three days.
Read more: VnExpress
Market Gets Ready for Its Close-Up
The VN-Index pushed ahead more than 40% through 2025, setting up what could be the year's defining market event - an FTSE Russell upgrade to Secondary Growing Market status in September. The reclassification is expected to result in institutional inflows of $6-8 billion, mostly from pension funds, insurers, and index trackers currently barred from investing in frontier markets. The change will matter less for short-term index gains than for a permanent repricing as the market gets benchmarked against Thailand and Indonesia instead of Mongolia and Kenya. Vietnamese stocks still trade at 10-20% below regional peers.
Read more: Vietnam Investment Review (Masan ownership change), Vietnam Investment Review (brokerage firm targets), Eneconomy (FTSE upgrade timeline)
Factory Floor or Musical Chairs?
Bac Ninh's electronics factories are on the hunt for 330,000 (!) workers, and the scramble is getting expensive. Signing bonuses now run to more than $300, with referral payouts stacked on top, as manufacturers chase labor in a province that drew $5.5 billion in FDI last year. Goertek Vina alone needs 120,000 bodies. Fukang wants 60,000. Luxshare is on the prowl for 40,000. The province trains a little more than 20,000 workers a year, meeting less than a third of the demand. The bonus war is creating a side effect nobody planned (or wished) for in a class of workers who treat signing bonuses as a business model, hopping factories every few months to collect payouts. What they may not realize (although they may be well aware and just don’t care) is that each move resets them at lower base wages that provide thinner social insurance contributions, which are quietly hollowing out their unemployment and pension protections. Not a problem if they’re investing the windfalls of signing bonuses, but… we have our doubts.
Read more: VnExpress
864 Candidates, 500 Seats, 99.64% Turnout
Vietnam tallied 76 million ballots in the March 15 National Assembly election, a 99.64% turnout. The Communist Party fielded 864 candidates for 500 seats, offering voters a ratio of 1.73 options per spot in what remains a single-party system. Lao Cai province finished voting earliest, at 5:45 p.m., and joined Hue as two of 34 localities to hit 100% participation. Lao Cai alone has 173 voters aged 100 and above, the oldest being 114-year-old Giang Nu Sua. Given the overwhelming results, it might be reasonable to share some context. The election came days after police arrested journalist Le Anh Hung on March 9, charging him under Article 117 for "propagandizing against the state," a crime that carries up to 20 years of prison time. Hung, a member of the Independent Journalists Association and former contributor to Voice of America, was previously released in 2023 after a five-year sentence that included beatings with a metal chair, being tied to a bed, and forcibly injected with unspecified drugs at a Hanoi psychiatric hospital. The new National Assembly will come together for a five-year term.
Read more: VnExpress (final turnout stats), Eneconomy, Ifex (journalist arrest context), VnExpress (eligible voter totals), VnExpress (leadership voting photos)
VinFast Doubles Everything
VinFast shipped 196,919 electric cars in 2025, up 102% from the prior year, as revenue was up 105% to $3.6 billion. The Q4 sprint delivered 86,557 units, up 127% from the previous quarter, and budget Green brand and EC Van models accounted for just under half of the quarter's deliveries. International markets now make up a little less than a fifth of total global deliveries, up from negligible numbers a year earlier. VinFast now runs 424 showrooms globally, but it should be noted that the unaudited results don't break out how many of the deliveries made were done at a profit.
Read more: VnExpress
Hanoi Orders Its Banks to Bulk Up
The Politburo wants at least three of Vietnam's Big 4 state banks among Asia's 100 largest by assets by 2030, and Resolution No. 79, signed by Party General Secretary To Lam on January 6, explains how its expected to happen. The mandate is to restructure, raise charter capital, and start acting like the "leaders" and "pioneers" the Party keeps saying that they are. Agribank, BIDV, Vietcombank, and Vietinbank together control credit flow though the national banking system, where the state holds either full or controlling stakes. The same resolution is setting up the Vietnam Asset Management Company with the task of getting out of what one observer calls a "bad debt warehouse" and turning itself into a market entity that’s capable of turning NPLs into cash flow. The Vietnam Debt Trading Company is getting similar marching orders.
Read more: Eneconomy
Hanoi Dusts Off Its Nuclear Playbook
The Finance Ministry has been told to set up an appraisal council for the Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power project, and reports are due before the National Assembly's first session of its 16th tenure (in April). The order comes after a Politburo resolution for both Ninh Thuan 1 and Ninh Thuan 2 to move forward with "suitable partners," and get things operational by between 2030 and 2035. Vietnam previously shelved its nuclear ambitions a decade ago on cost concerns, but the energy environment has change significantly since then.
Read more: VN Economy
Selfie Drones Ground 83 Flights, Military Rolls Out the Jammers
Six illegal drone flights near Da Nang's airport disrupted 83 commercial aircraft over Tet (the Lunar New Year week), forcing planes into holding patterns or forcing them to divert 80 km to Phu Bai. Military units are now on patrol with anti-drone jamming guns and surveillance systems. A 25-year-old Chinese tourist was the latest to get his DJI Mavic 3 Pro seized, as he was caught flying near East Sea Park on March 14. Fines are between about $1,100 and $1,500. The airport's mid-city position puts approach paths right over tourist beaches.
Read more: Dronedj (military response), VnExpress (fines), VN Economy (industry context)
Satellite Internet at Seven Times the Price
Starlink got its Vietnam license in February and plans to charge $85 a month plus $350 for equipment. For context, that’s about seven times what local fiber costs, but the prices have not been finalized yet. The initial rollout limits the number of terminals to 600,000, a number that would serve only a sliver of the country's 25 million internet users. At the proposed price point, mass adoption beyond remote areas where cable doesn't reach is going to be a tough sell.
Read more: TechNode Global
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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