Vietnam and Singapore Build Legal Framework for Digital Assets

Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance has determined that completing the legal framework for digital assets and next-generation financial products is a driver to unlock foreign capital flows.

Paving the way for digital assets

The regional capital market is witnessing a strong shift in new capital flows. There, digital-asset and tokenized-asset trading platforms are no longer an experimental playground but have become a mandatory component of a modern financial center.

Faced with this reality, building a set of safe, transparent management rules is being put at the top of the agenda by Vietnamese regulators.

Within the framework of General Secretary To Lam’s official visit to Singapore, together with a high-level Vietnamese delegation, financial technology became a highlight.

Minister of Finance Ngo Van Tuan held a direct working session with Chia Der Jiun, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The meeting focused on capital-market development strategy, especially the establishment of legal frameworks for next-generation financial products.

Minister of Finance Ngo Van Tuan held a direct working session with Chia Der Jiun, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Photo: SSC

Minister Ngo Van Tuan said Vietnam is striving to achieve high growth targets in the new period. To realize this, developing the financial market in a synchronized manner, especially effectively mobilizing medium- and long-term resources, is of great importance.

In particular, Vietnam prioritizes completing the mechanism for new financial products and green finance. This is precisely the space where digital assets, under the strict control of the law, can gradually take shape and contribute to the economy’s capital-raising picture.

From an international perspective, Singapore has long maintained its position as a leading financial center in Asia with an extremely developed digital-asset management ecosystem.

MAS is renowned for its flexible yet extremely rigorous controlled testing mechanism (sandbox), which allows financial institutions to operate new technology products without creating systemic risk.

Chia Der Jiun said that both Vietnam and Singapore are demonstrating a positive ability to adapt to global economic fluctuations.

The MAS Managing Director expressed confidence that Vietnam will continue to maintain its position as one of the most dynamic growing economies in ASEAN. The two agencies agreed to continue strengthening the exchange of experience and sharing of policy information to help Vietnam build a modern financial market.

Upgrading the market

The long-term story of Vietnam’s financial sector at this point remains the goal of upgrading the stock market from frontier to emerging status, according to the criteria of international rating organizations.

In reality, to attract long-term investment flows from pension funds or global-scale investment funds, the Vietnamese market needs to satisfy strict criteria on openness, information accessibility and risk management.

An upgrade will help international institutional investors confidently allocate a larger portfolio weighting to domestic corporate stocks.

Minister of Finance Ngo Van Tuan visits the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Photo: SSC

In this process, the Minister of Finance asked the State Securities Commission (SSC) and MAS to continue expanding cooperation, with a focus on improving the governance quality of listed companies. Vietnamese businesses need to become familiar with standards for information disclosure in English, sustainability (ESG) reporting and transparent dialogue mechanisms with shareholders.

Sharing this view, MAS is ready to support Vietnam in developing a network of institutional investors. A sustainable market cannot rely solely on individual cash flow with a short-term trading mentality, but needs pillars in the form of professional investment funds, which require high transparency and a clear legal corridor.

In parallel with the stock market, promoting the development of the corporate bond market toward greater professionalism is also a mandatory step.

Instead of relying too heavily on the bank-credit channel, large-scale businesses need to proactively raise capital through the bond channel to serve infrastructure and energy projects, which require investment cycles measured in decades.

Looking at the entire Vietnam–Singapore Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the two sides highly valued the positive cooperation results between Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance and MAS over the past period, especially in developing the capital market, enhancing management and supervision capacity, and promoting connectivity between the two countries’ financial institutions.

Minister Ngo Van Tuan stressed that, in a context where the world economy still faces many fluctuations, strengthening the connection of the financial and capital markets between the two countries not only creates additional momentum for each country’s economic development but also contributes positively to the goal of building an increasingly connected, dynamic and sustainably developing ASEAN financial market.

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Source: TheLeader — theleader.vn. This article is republished to share knowledge with the community of founders and investors in the HCM VIF ecosystem.