features
The Features category includes in-depth analyses, expert opinions, and long-form reports on key industries, policies, and market developments. It explores trends, challenges, and opportunities across various sectors, providing comprehensive insights for professionals, businesses, and policymakers.
Vietnam manufacturing growth cools in June as inflation pressures ease: S&P
The S&P Global Vietnam Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell to 51.8 in June from 52.8 in May but remained above the 50-point threshold separating expansion from contraction, according to the latest release from S&P.
State Bank of Vietnam to exclude some major projects from credit growth limits
This seems to be a part of a trend where lending goals running up against risk-mitigating regulations are not forcing a rethink of those goals, but rather the regulations holding them back. A trend that could have significant economic implications.
Vietnam’s Cinema Department Raises Concerns Over Horror Movie Content
This highlights a key challenge in creating cultural products in Vietnam more broadly, where there is a mismatch in what the government wants cultural messaging to be and what the public is willing to pay for.
Vietnam Central Bank Proposes Increase Short-Term Funds Available For Long-Term Loans
This feeds into the narrative that policymakers are trading off higher growth today in exchange for more financial risk tomorrow.
38 percent of Vietnam businesses in VCCI survey paying “informal charges”
That equates to more than one in three businesses and comes despite well-publicised anti-corruption campaigns in recent years.
Data Security: 20 Million Records Stolen in Vietnam National Immunisation System Hack
This, among other recent cyber incidents, provides an interesting backdrop to plans approved last month to develop a national cloud platform to replace foreign cloud services.
Investment Risks in Vietnam: Hanoi Metro Contract Dispute Over Costs, Schedules
This is interesting in that it adds to a growing line of projects in which seemingly settled commercial assumptions are reopened after projects are already well underway.
US Trade: Vietnam Gov’t Seeks Update on Plane, Engine Purchases
Bigger picture, the directive highlights an enduring tension in Vietnam’s economic model. Whereas Hanoi has pushed Washington to recognise it as a market economy, the request suggests the state is still willing to exercise its influence over the private sector.
Automotive in Vietnam: EV Maker VinFast Records US$1 Billion Net Loss in Q1
This is interesting in that it comes amid an uptick in sales with 58,577 electric cars and 143,136 electric two-wheelers delivered, up 61 percent and 219 percent compared to Q1 2025, respectively.
Cryptocurrency in Vietnam: SSC Says Can Be Kept Off Shore But Not Traded
These developments are noteworthy in that new rules and regulations around Vietnam’s digital asset exchange project have been coming thick and fast in recent months, but clear gaps in policy objectives and realities remain.
Vietnam-US Trade: USTR Proposes Forced Labour-Linked Tariffs
Though further submissions are possible and more public hearings are scheduled, it looks unlikely that these tariffs, through the 301 investigation process, will be avoidable.
Aviation in Vietnam: New HCMC Airport Trial Operations Start September
Expectations and commitments appear increasingly disconnected from on-the-ground progress, raising questions about whether the current timetable remains achievable.
Electricity in Vietnam: Samsung Clinches First DPPA
There is a lot of interest in DPPAs in Vietnam, though there have been challenges in seeing actual agreements realised. With this latest announcement from Samsung, it seems those challenges may be easing.
Energy in Vietnam: Only petrol-ethanol mix to be available from today
Starting today, all unleaded gasoline sold in Vietnam is to be blended with ethanol. However, this is not welcome news for everyone, with some consumers concerned it might damage their vehicles.
E-commerce in Vietnam: Shopee fee increase U-turn after gov’t review
One way to read this is that it might reflect an effort to pre-empt more burdensome government regulation as scrutiny of Vietnam’s increasingly concentrated e-commerce market grows.
Electricity in Vietnam: Hanoi Faces Outages Amid Heatwave Demand Surge
Power shortages have become part and parcel with summer heat in Hanoi, but relief could be a long way away with power development bogged down in the same issues that have plagued the sector for years.
Vietnam Oil & Gas: Bidding Opens for Block 17 Exploration
There is a lot of activity in Vietnam’s oil and gas sector on the back of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Despite this newfound motivation, however, it is only one piece of a much more complicated puzzle.
Vinhomes’ Gold-for-Real Estate Scheme Regulatory Red Flags
This scheme should raise some red flags with Vietnam’s regulators and macro policy hawks, and it will be interesting to see if it is allowed to go ahead, and if so, if anyone actually takes up the offer.
North Carolina vs VinFast Lawsuit: What Happens Next?
It’s difficult to see what VinFast can possibly say with respect to mounting a legal defence. Though VinFast is still in business, despite mounting losses, so it might be too presumptive to count the company’s North Carolina ambitions out just yet.
Satellite Internet Vietnam: Amazon Considering Entering Market
The significance of Amazon’s move into Vietnam’s satellite internet services market is that the government appears increasingly willing to accept reduced control over parts of its telecommunications sector where the economic and geopolitical benefits are judged to outweigh the political risks.
In today’s Vietnam news: Government to inject cash into Agribank, IMF growth forecast raised, German industrial gas plant investment, VN garment maker Amazon legal
In today’s Vietnam news: Construction labour demand impacting garment industry, ADB growth forecasts, Bloomberg survey GDP growth expectations, Starlink orders open, Seafood industry call
In today’s Vietnam news: Arrest over book about Ho Chi Minh, HSR project disbursement, More coal power under consideration, MPS minister meets Japanese delivery
This is an interview with Chris Walker, a Vietnam Sourcing Expert with Vietnam Factory Tours how rising oil prices and the Middle East crisis are
This is an interview with John Gardner, CEO and Founding Partner, at Optimum Hospitality in Ho Chi Minh City. It covers fuel price impacts on:
This is an interview with Dr Nuno F. Ribeiro, Associate Professor, International Tourism & Hospitality Management at Copenhagen Business College, formerly of RMIT Vietnam. It