Vietnam seeks stronger cooperation with Fitch Ratings to improve sovereign credit rating

Vietnam seeks stronger cooperation with Fitch Ratings to improve sovereign credit rating

On October 12, at the Ministry of Finance, Minister of Finance Ngo Van Tuan met with Ian Linnell, president of international credit rating agency Fitch Ratings, to discuss Vietnam’s sovereign credit profile, and macroeconomic growth prospects.

Photo: Duc Minh

At the meeting, Minister Tuan expressed his appreciation for the long-standing and effective cooperation between Vietnam’s Ministry of Finance and Fitch Ratings.

Providing an overview of Vietnam’s macroeconomic outlook, the minister noted the country's target of annual GDP growth at least 10 per cent. To achieve this, Vietnam estimates that capital mobilisation across the economy will need to reach approximately 40 per cent of GDP, with the capital mobilisation ratio expected to increase by around 2.5 times. At the same time, the government is determined to improve capital efficiency, aiming to reduce the incremental capital-output ratio from 6.4 to approximately 4.5-4.8.

"These objectives would create substantial scope and opportunities for cooperation, not only for the government but also for Vietnam’s business community, in accessing international sources of capital," the minister said.

Thanking the minister for his warm reception, Linnell noted that Vietnam was among the few countries worldwide to have maintained a strong and rapid growth trajectory.

Linnell said Fitch Ratings currently provided credit ratings for between 17 and 19 major organisations and businesses in Vietnam, describing the country as a market with significant potential in Southeast Asia. Against this backdrop, Fitch Ratings was carefully considering the timing of officially opening a representative office in Vietnam.

"In discussions with major investment funds across Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, Vietnam consistently attracted particular attention. International investors highly regarded the country’s positive macroeconomic growth story, strong shifts in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows, and promising investment market outlook," he said.

Expressing confidence in Vietnam’s future, Linnell said that although the country’s current rating outlook remained stable, there were solid grounds for Vietnam to make more progress.

Photo: Duc Minh

Concurring with Fitch Ratings, Minister Tuan said international financial market confidence in Vietnam was clearly growing. Recently, Japan’s credit rating agency JCR upgraded Vietnam to investment grade, while FTSE Russell had also delivered highly positive assessments of the Vietnamese capital market.

During recent meetings in New York, many international financial investors expressed interest in exploring the possibility of Vietnam issuing international bonds.

"Vietnam was carefully preparing the necessary conditions, particularly by enhancing the capacity of key projects to absorb capital, with a view to optimising costs and improving the efficiency of resource utilisation," the minister said.

He expressed his hope that Fitch Ratings would continue to work closely with Vietnam and provide candid assessments of the country’s strengths and areas requiring improvement, helping Vietnam soon enhance its sovereign credit rating.

Agreeing with the MoF’s direction, Linnell expressed confidence that Vietnam’s next government bond issuance on international markets, including the US market, would attract a positive response from investors.

Minister Tuan expressed his expectation that cooperation between the two sides would become more substantive. He voiced his hope of receiving an invitation to attend the official opening ceremony of Fitch Ratings’ representative office in Vietnam.

VIR