…Next
III. DIFFICULTIES AND CHALLENGES IN ATTRACTING LONG-TERM CAPITAL FLOWS
1. Bottlenecks in attracting and allocating long-term domestic capital.
Although Vietnam has the potential to mobilize capital from household savings and domestic investors, transforming these resources into long-term investment capital still faces many obstacles.
Firstly, the financial intermediary structure remains heavily reliant on the banking system. People’s savings are primarily mobilized through bank deposits, while long-term investment institutions such as voluntary pension funds, bond funds, and infrastructure investment funds have not yet played their role in providing medium and long-term capital.
A developed financial system requires the diverse participation of institutional investors, with investment strategies based on long-term goals and varying risk tolerances.
Secondly, there are limitations in the depth of the corporate bond market. Issuance activity remains concentrated in a few sectors, while the investor base is not sufficiently diversified. Secondary market liquidity, information quality, and the ability to assess credit risk need further improvement.
Thirdly, there is a mismatch between capital needs and the ability to raise capital by maturity. In many cases, businesses use short-term loans or funds with unsuitable repayment periods to finance long-term assets, creating refinancing risks when credit markets tighten, capital costs increase, or business cash flow declines.
Fourth, the economy’s capacity to absorb capital is uneven. Not every business or project in need of capital meets the conditions regarding investment efficiency, debt repayment capacity, and risk management.
Facilitating access to capital does not mean loosening credit standards or reducing requirements for investors. A sustainable capital market needs to improve the quality of project selection and promote healthy competition in accessing financial resources.
2. Difficulties and challenges in attracting international capital flows.
International capital continues to play a crucial role in Vietnam’s economic development. In the first nine months of 2026, total registered FDI reached US$50.36 billion, an increase of 76.4% compared to the same period; implemented FDI reached US$21.07 billion, an increase of 12.1%.
This result reflects Vietnam’s ability to attract foreign investment, particularly in manufacturing, industrial sectors, and export-oriented businesses.
However, it is necessary to distinguish between FDI, indirect investment in the stock market, and international loans. FDI is usually associated with investment in production capacity and long-term business operations; indirect investment flows may be more sensitive to international interest rates, exchange rates, profit prospects, and market sentiment.
For international loans or bond issuances abroad, the cost of raising capital is often significantly influenced by national creditworthiness, corporate creditworthiness, global financial market conditions, and exchange rate fluctuations.
Major challenges include exchange rate risk, foreign exchange hedging costs, the ability to meet international accounting and disclosure standards, corporate governance quality, investor protection, and the level of development of infrastructure for trading, custody, settlement, and capital transfer.
From a credit analysis perspective, raising foreign currency capital can increase risk if the business does not have corresponding foreign currency revenue sources or appropriate hedging measures. For businesses whose revenue is primarily in Vietnamese Dong, long-term foreign currency borrowing requires careful assessment based on cash flow, payment obligations, and exchange rate fluctuations throughout the loan term.
Therefore, expanding access to international capital must go hand in hand with improving the financial risk management capabilities and creditworthiness of the capital-raising organization.
3. The role of international financial centers in connecting cross-border capital.
At a workshop in July 2026, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Huu Huan expressed his expectation that the International Finance Center in Ho Chi Minh City could aim to mobilize approximately 10-30 billion USD annually during the 2026-2030 period. This is a scenario/target proposed by experts and should absolutely not be interpreted as committed or disbursed capital.
The Center’s potential advantages lie in providing foreign currency and multi-currency fundraising structures, project finance, investment funds, private credit, international bonds, and hedging instruments. Maritime finance, aviation finance, logistics, and green finance are proposed as potential development directions that can be linked to the needs of the real economy.
According to Saigon Ratings, the effectiveness of the Center should not be assessed solely by the number of registered institutions or the amount of capital recorded, but rather by the actual capital disbursed into eligible projects, average maturity, cost of capital after risk mitigation, value added, and investment quality. Key criteria include legal transparency, effective dispute resolution, contract enforceability, and the presence of projects with a sufficiently reliable credit history.
4. Inherent limitations of businesses in raising long-term capital.
In practice, many Vietnamese businesses face difficulties in accessing long-term capital not entirely due to a lack of capital supply, but also stemming from inherent limitations.
First, the capital structure is not rational. Some businesses maintain high debt levels relative to equity, relying on short-term loans or frequently having to restructure payment obligations. This increases their sensitivity to fluctuations in interest rates and credit conditions.
Furthermore, the quality of operating cash flow in some businesses does not match their accounting revenue and profit. Large accounts receivable, high inventory levels, or long cash conversion cycles can impair debt repayment ability, even when the business remains profitable.
Another notable limitation is the ability to disclose information and financial transparency. Institutional investors typically require reliable financial data, information on debt obligations, related-party transactions, capital utilization strategies, and debt repayment plans.
Businesses that fail to meet these requirements may face higher capital costs or have limited access to professional investors.
The culture of credit management within the Vietnamese business community needs further improvement. Many businesses only focus on credit ratings when issuing bonds or accessing a specific loan, instead of viewing credit management as a regular activity integrated into their long-term financial strategy.
Credit quality reflects not only the ability to repay debt at a given time but also the overall result of business capabilities, financial structure, governance quality, and the ability to adapt to adverse changes. A business that proactively manages its creditworthiness will be able to identify weaknesses in its financial structure early, improve cash flow quality, and develop more appropriate capital raising plans.
