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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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