The stock market of Vietnam has had an improvement in rating for the Transferability criterion on the back of increased uptake for off-exchange and in-kind transactions following regulation changes, according to the 2024 Global Market Accessibility Review which has been released by the MSCI.

Following changes in regulation, more types of off-exchange transactions and in-kind transfers can be executed without the need for regulatory pre-approval, leading to volumes for these transactions increasing significantly in recent years, the MSCI report states.

Besides this, Vietnam continues to work on market development plans to address certain accessibility issues, such as foreign ownership limits, pre-funding requirements, and the lack of English disclosure of market information.

MSCI will continue to closely monitor progress on these reforms.

However,  according to MSCI, there are still eight criteria that need improvements, including foreign ownership limit level, foreign room level, equal rights to foreign investors, foreign exchange market liberalization level, investor registration & account set up, market regulations, information flow, and clearing and settlement.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has recently emphasized the Government's determination to have Vietnam's stock market upgraded from frontier status to emerging market status by 2025.

He asked relevant ministries and agencies to urgently address any obstacles to meet the necessary requirements for the upgrade.