News from Southeast Asia directly to your inbox every weekday.
The Mekong Memo is proudly presented by:
Horton International is your premier partner for executive search in Southeast Asia. Whether you're a small startup or a global corporation, our reliable and effective recruiting solutions are tailored to meet your unique needs. With extensive experience and offices across the region, we excel at overcoming recruitment challenges and securing top talent for your organization.
Click here to learn how Horton can make your life easier.
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.
Growing-Markets Promotion Arrives
Vietnam is on the cusp of graduating from “frontier” to “secondary growing-market” status under FTSE Russell. The change is due on September 21. Twenty-seven stocks, including Vietcombank, Vingroup and FPT, will join the FTSE Global All Cap Index as a result. MBS Research expects about $180 million in ETF buying in the first phase and roughly $1.8 billion in passive inflows over the next year as Vietnam's investable weight rises from 10 percent to 100 percent by this time next year. Five Vanguard and Schwab funds holding a combined $458 billion will get exposure automatically, although Vietnam is starting with only 0.049 percent of the FTSE Growing Index. Foreign investors recently reversed course too, picking up a net $59.4 million of shares in two buying sessions after previously selling $117.8 million between September 3 and 11.
Read more: Tuoi Tre (stocks), Tuoi Tre (foreign buying), Tuoi Tre (market)
To Lam Brings 29 Deals to New York
To Lam will head to New York to address the UN General Assembly on September 22, then he’ll witness nearly 30 commercial agreements at a business conference on the 23rd. Most are of the deals are nonbinding, but still indicate a strong intent. Vietjet is expected to pen deals to lease as many as 22 aircraft, and SpaceX is signing up to bring Starlink internet to 120 of the their planes. Chevron and Murphy Oil plan to sign energy agreements with Petrovietnam, although a similar (also nonbinding) Chevron deal from February has yet to result in any purchase. The paperwork is getting done as Hanoi tries to close a trade deal with Washington after more than a year of negotiations, and with Trump's tariff threat still hanging over exporters. A meeting with Trump is hoped for but still unconfirmed.
Read more: Reuters (deals), The News (5G)
Vuong Sells VinFast a $1.2 Billion Property Lifeline
VinFast is buying a $1.2 billion property developer from founder Pham Nhat Vuong, in a deal that will provide the loss-making EV maker with new earnings and some cash flow. Vuong has also stepped down as CEO and handed the wheel to his 33-year-old son, Pham Nhat Quan Anh, who has chaired VinFast since May and continues to helm steel producer VinMetal. His younger brother, Pham Nhat Minh Hoang, 26, will take charge of ride-hailing arm Green SM as it gets ready for its IPO. The family fortune didn’t really move much in the shuffle - Vuong's net worth was up $800 million in two weeks to $37.4 billion, keeping him firmly in place as Southeast Asia's richest man.
Read more: Nikkei Asia (property deal), VnExpress (succession), VnExpress (wealth)
Hanoi Weighs First Dollar Bond Since 2014
The Finance Ministry and foreign banks are jawboning about the possibility of issuing Hanoi's first sovereign dollar bond since 2014. In that deal, it raised $1 billion at a 4.8 percent coupon. This time, the pitches include deals of the same magnitude, probably for a 10-year note at something near to 7 percent. The money would be used to fund infrastructure and take some of the pressure off of domestic banks, where credit has been growing faster than deposits since 2021. Public debt is about 37 percent of GDP (for reference, that’s well below Thailand's 64 percent and Malaysia's 66 percent).
Read more: Reuters
EVN Clears Losses, Faces a $32 Billion Tab
Vietnam Electricity was able to muster a $470 million profit in the first eight months of 2026, chairman Dang Hoang An told deputy PM Pham Gia Tuc, finally filling the nearly $2 billion hole it dug through 2022 and 2023. The parent company still had a $216 million loss at the end of 2025, but that has narrowed as revenue was reported at $18.55 billion, which is 70 percent of its annual target. EVN expects full-year profit to be in excess of $519 million. It is budgeting almost $32 billion through 2030 to add 93,000 MW of capacity under the revised power plan, including 6,066 MW of its generation and 1,700 MW of storage.
Read more: The Investor
Power Grid Growth Falls Below 10 Percent Target
Only 5 percent of projects under the national power plan are up and running, the Trade Ministry says, with the balance stuck in approvals or fights about who gets to build them. Supply is covering demand this year, but the ministry is expecting a 4,200 MW shortfall next year and by 2030, the gap could widen to 13,900 MW. The ministry wants to restart coal-fired plant proposals to cover for LNG projects that have been delayed and is also pushing to install roughly 2,800 MW of solar on government offices, schools and hospitals by the middle of next year. The urgency is somewhat understandable after blackouts shuttered production lines across the industrial north in 2023.
Read more: Energy Connects (power gap), Briefs (growth target)
Full Foreign Ownership Dropped From Draft Law
In what will come as disappointing news to many readers of The Memo, Vietnam’s Finance Ministry has removed explicit language that would have allowed for 100 percent foreign ownership from its draft Investment Law amendment. The State Bank warned that opening financial services, accounting, auditing and travel agencies to full foreign control could leave capital flows more exposed to global interest and exchange-rate swings. To be fair, the ministry seems less worried and continues to say that 10 of 91 restricted sectors already allow foreign investors to own as much as 99.9 percent of charter capital, making the joint-venture rule little more than a fig leaf that bears a compliance cost. The newest draft leaves any possibility of relaxation to the government on a case by case basis.
Read more: VnEconomy
Tesla Puts Up $3M as Market Entry Signal
Tesla has registered Tesla Motors Vietnam LLC with VND77.7 billion, (~$3 million), in charter capital and an office in Ho Chi Minh City. The license covers selling vehicles, parts and machinery, but bears no launch date, price list or information related to showrooms, service centers or charging stations. Musk took the same approach with Starlink, setting up a local subsidiary in advance of its satellite license being issued. Tesla would enter a market dominated by VinFast, which delivered 154,073 EVs through August and has led the country's auto rankings for 24 straight months.
Read more: Vietnam News (VinFast), Barchart (Tesla), VnEconomy (Starlink)
Thai King Flies His Own Plane to Hanoi
Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, a licensed commercial pilot, flew himself and Queen Suthida in the first state visit to Vietnam by a reigning Thai monarch since the countries formally set diplomatic ties in 1976. After a 21-gun salute at Thang Long Imperial Citadel, the King went on to lay wreaths at Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, attended prayers at Quan Su Pagoda and met General Secretary and President To Lam. Thailand has 813 active investment projects in Vietnam and is its largest ASEAN trading partner. Two-way trade was $22.1 billion in the last full reported year of 2025.
Read more: VnExpress (investment), VnExpress (trade), VOV World (talks), VOV World (visit)
Regulators Open the Hood on Grab's Commissions
A threatened weekend Grab logoff never fully materialized, but the spectre of it seems to have gotten the attention of the National Competition Commission. The regulator met with Grab reps and is collecting fare, fee and commission records, in addition to gathering comparable documents some of its rival ride-hailing apps. Grab reportedly skims 20 percent off the top of the fares charged for two-wheel rides and 25 percent of the fare for four-wheel vehicles. Drivers say taxes and platform fees mean that total deductions from Grab end up being up to 50% of each fare, leaving them little remaining to cover fuel and vehicle wear, to say nothing of their time. The commission has told every platform that they’ll need to disclose their pricing and commission policies.
Read more: VnExpress
Canberra Grounds Pomelo Debut
Five months after pomelos from Ho Chi Minh City, Vinh Long and Can Tho hit the shelves of Australia, imports have suddenly been suspended for six months. Ag officials say that they found signs of pests on almost three quarters of consignments and an audit found incomplete monitoring logs, inconsistent trap placement and poor record-keeping at packing facilities. None of the pests was on Australia's quarantine watch list, but Canberra has apparently seen enough to warrant a crackdown. Hanoi has told provinces to review every registered growing area and packing code before exports will be allowed to start again. Citrus Australia, which represents an A$1.2 billion industry and opposed the trade from the start, (gleefully?) said the suspension is proof that the system is working.
Read more: ABC (industry), Tuoi Tre (resumption)
Orient Express Buys Into Luxury Sleeper
Arsenale, the Italian group behind La Dolce Vita Orient Express and the UK-based Golden Eagle, has bought a third of SJourney. The eight-day luxury sleeper train runs a 1,726 kilometer trip from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City and financially broke even soon after its launch in 2024. The Rome operator hopes to eventually increase its stake to half and plans to invest 20 million euros, ($23.2 million), over the next five years. It is also eyeing expansion into neighboring Southeast Asian markets and a possible rebrand as SJourney by Golden Eagle.
Read more: VnExpress (journey), VnEconomy (investment)
Hanoi Offers Small Firms a 30 Percent Tax Cut
The Finance Ministry wants to cut personal and corporate income tax by 30 percent in 2026 and 2027 for households and businesses that have annual revenue that’s less than VND10 billion ($379,000). Firms would be allowed to calculate the discount themselves using projected revenue. If actual revenue exceeds the cap, they would owe the reduction back in full without any late-payment penalty.
Read more: Vietnam News
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.
If you value the Mekong Memo, please consider buying (or gifting!) a paid subscription, sharing it on social media or forwarding this email to someone who might enjoy it. Please also “like” this newsletter by clicking the ❤️ below (or sometimes above, depending on the platform), which helps us get visibility on the Substack network.