Vietnam's multi-layered solutions for FTZ development

Over the past decade, Vietnam has been best known as a manufacturing and investment hub.

- By Rizwan Khan Managing partner, Acclime Vietnam

In recent years, however, policymakers have increasingly advanced the vision of positioning Vietnam, especially Ho Chi Minh City, as an international financial centre (IFC).By 2025, this ambition began to take shape, with initial institutional steps to shift Vietnam from a capital recipient to a regional platform for structuring and deploying capital.

While much attention has centred on the proposed IFC, deeper changes are unfolding beneath the surface. Free trade zones (FTZ), fintech and banking sandboxes, digital asset pilots, capital market reforms, and venture investment policies together point to a more flexible, experimental financial ecosystem, reflecting a layered regulatory approach that enables innovation to evolve alongside the real economy.

Over the past year, policymakers have been testing multiple regulatory pathways, allowing financial innovation to evolve alongside trade, manufacturing, and digital transformation.

In 2025, Vietnam entered a key phase of institutional preparation. It laid the legal foundation for IFCs in Ho Chi Minh City and Danang, introducing greater regulatory coordination, licensing flexibility, and international participation. While the IFC framework highlights ambitions in cross-border finance, asset management, fintech, and capital markets, it is only one part of a broader financial architecture, reinforced by pilot schemes and regulatory sandboxes that signal a shift towards a more adaptive, experimentation-led regulatory approach.