11 Feb, 2026

Vientiane Capital Surpasses 2025 Revenue Target by 31%

Vientiane Capital collected more than LAK 14 trillion (approximately USD 650 million) in 2025, surpassing its annual target by 31 percent, according to the Department of Finance of Vientiane Capital.Speaking at the 2025 Annual Financial Review Meeting and the 2026 Planning Conference, Viengsaly Inthaphom, Head of the Department of Finance of Vientiane Capital, said total revenue collection reached 130 percent of the approved plan, marking a year-on-year increase of 31 percent, or approximately LAK 3.3 trillion (approximately USD 153 million).Viengsaly attributed the successful performance to stricter revenue management, improved tax administration, and full implementation of the TaxRIS system across all units. Additional contributions came from an expanded tax base, better registration of small and micro-enterprises, and higher revenue from fuel imports, vehicles, and consumer goods.The finance head also noted that effective coordination between the Vientiane Capital administration, the Ministry of Finance, and district authorities played a key role in strengthening collections and achieving targets.Looking ahead to 2026, the Department of Finance will continue tightening revenue control, preventing budget leakage, and implementing national economic recovery measures.

09 Feb, 2026

Vietnam Gives Foreign Investors Easier Access to Stock Market

AFP – Vietnam has moved to allow foreign investors to buy shares of local companies through international brokerages, the finance ministry has announced, removing a major hurdle to accessing the fast-growing Asian market.Vietnam’s benchmark stock index surged more than 40 percent last year, despite new 20 percent tariffs on exports to its top trading partner the United States.The easing of investment restrictions comes ahead of Vietnam’s expected upgrade to emerging market status by FTSE Russell, enabling the index provider to start including Vietnamese equities by September.Foreign investors no longer have to open trading accounts directly with a domestic securities company, the finance ministry said on Tuesday of the policy change.Tran Hoang Son, market strategy director at VPBank Securities Company in Hanoi, said the changes help “reduce technical barriers and administrative procedures… making the Vietnamese market more accessible to foreign capital”.“These reforms serve as necessary conditions to activate medium and long-term foreign capital flows,” he added.The new rules do not alter strict foreign ownership limits.FTSE Russell announced in October that it was reclassifying Vietnam as a “secondary emerging market”, a designation that will put it in the same group with China and India.The upgrade from “frontier” status, which is subject to an interim review in March, takes effect in September, the index provider has said.FTSE Russell first added Vietnam to its watch list for an upgrade in 2018, and the country has made sweeping market reforms since then, including scrapping some foreign ownership caps for publicly listed companies.It has predicted that promotion to emerging market status could unlock up to USD 6 billion in capital inflows.Vietnam has proved surprisingly resilient in the face of new 20 percent tariffs imposed by US leader Donald Trump, clocking eight percent growth last year, among the fastest in Asia.