Financial Center: A Strategic Move to Enhance the Economy's Capacity

National Assembly Delegate Trinh Xuan An: The establishment of a regional and international financial center in Vietnam is a major policy of the Party and State, aiming to create new momentum for national development.

Talking to the Government E-newspaper about the establishment of a regional and international financial center in Vietnam, National Assembly Delegate Trinh Xuan An emphasized that the establishment of a regional and international financial center in Vietnam is a major policy of the Party and State, aiming to create a new driving force for the country's development.

He said that to promote the economy, three important factors are needed: institutions, human resources and financial resources. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, institutions are being strongly reformed, human resources are being invested in training, and finance has made significant progress thanks to the achievements of innovation in recent years.

According to Mr. Trinh Xuan An, the idea of ​​establishing a regional and international financial center has been mentioned for a long time but there have been no clear conditions for implementation. Currently, Vietnam has sufficient political, legal and practical basis to realize this policy. Politically, in November 2024, the Central Executive Committee announced the Politburo's Conclusion on building a regional and international financial center in Vietnam. At the same time, this policy also received close guidance from senior leaders.

Legally, Vietnam has built a fairly synchronous legal system, especially regulations related to finance, investment and banking. This is an important foundation to ensure consistency in the establishment and operation of financial centers. More importantly, economic development practices show that to achieve a growth rate of 8% or more in the coming time, Vietnam needs a breakthrough in science and technology, human resources and especially the mobilization of financial resources through new institutions. A complete financial market with a position in the region and internationally is a prerequisite to realize this goal.

Mr. Trinh Xuan An emphasized that Vietnam is on the right track when developing a resolution on establishing a financial center. This resolution will address three major policy groups: Establishing a financial center and related agencies; policies applicable to this center and state management mechanisms.

Explaining the need for a financial center, he cited successful models such as New York, Hong Kong, London, and in the region, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. A financial center has three important roles: attracting capital and promoting the economy; creating a foundation for financial transactions and increasing national competitiveness. In addition, a financial center will support monetary policy, stabilize national finances and improve the quality of human resources in the financial sector.

He also pointed out the sectors that will benefit immediately from the establishment of the financial center, including banking, securities, insurance, fund investment and financial technology (fintech). These sectors need to prepare now to seize future development opportunities.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Business Association: With the establishment of the financial center, it will create a "playground" for 3 pillars.

Creating a 'playground' for 3 pillars

From a business perspective, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association, commented that the establishment of the financial center will create a "playground" for the three pillars.

The first is the banking market (capital market, capital mobilization ability), which helps businesses to issue bonds to raise capital. Currently, bonds issued are only focused on a number of real estate businesses and large enterprises, while other businesses have difficulty raising capital. "Capital for production and business investment in our country is 70-80% in banks, while in other countries it is only 30%, and the remaining 70% is mobilized by businesses through the capital market. Therefore, with the international financial center, we can solve this problem," said Mr. Hoa.

The second pillar is the interbank market. From there, we can solve capital pressure for banks.

Third is the commodity exchange. According to Mr. Hoa, we have the world's leading export products such as rice, coffee, pepper, but those transactions are not listed on the exchange, are not transparent and especially there is no opportunity to buy now pay later, buy later pay in advance. With the commodity exchange, we will have transactions for the next crop and thus, capital will flow in and farmers will have advance capital, creating many advantages.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa also said that it is necessary to immediately prepare human resources for the financial center, including human resources for three departments: the presiding agency, the judicial agency and the supervisory agency. In particular, it is necessary to prepare human resources for this Center from training centers or have mechanisms and policies to attract financial experts from abroad.

According to Mr. Hoa, when the National Assembly passes the resolution on the establishment of the international financial center, it will create a legal basis for the central ministries and branches to immediately form 3 agencies: the executive agency, the supervisory agency and the judicial agency. Therefore, from now on, it is necessary to urgently review to consider which regulations apply specifically to the operations of this Center and to the enterprises operating in the Center. Those regulations need to have specific assignments for the presiding agency and especially must set a completion time, for example, what regulations the State Bank needs to prepare, what policies the tax agency needs to prepare, etc.

Mr. Dinh Hong Ky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Secoin Joint Stock Company, said that the policy of building a financial center is extremely necessary. However, to build a financial center, the issue is not only infrastructure, but also other necessary conditions such as Blockchain and AI applications, high technology... to elevate Vietnam's financial industry and become a global financial center.

In addition, Mr. Dinh Hong Ky said that to truly become a regional and international financial center, Vietnam must be a complete market economy. To do so, we still need to complete many factors to create a foundation to build a financial center.

Anh Tho