Ho Chi Minh City climbs 17 places in global financial centers ranking, Da Nang debuts

The 40th edition of the Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI 40), released by Z/Yen Partners and the China Development Institute last month, gave Ho Chi Minh City a rating of 692, up 27 points from GFCI 39 released in March.

Ho Chi Minh City recorded the second-largest rise in the GFCI 40, behind Copenhagen, which climbed 19 places.

It also improved its ranking for the third consecutive edition, gaining a total of 28 places over the past two editions, from 95th to 67th.

Da Nang, meanwhile, made its debut in the GFCI, ranking 71st globally with a rating of 685, four places behind Ho Chi Minh City.

Ho Chi Minh City fourth in ASEAN, Da Nang fifth

Among ASEAN financial centers included in GFCI 40, Ho Chi Minh City ranked fourth in the region, behind Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Labuan in Malaysia.

Singapore remained ASEAN’s highest-ranked financial center at fourth globally with 755 points, followed by Kuala Lumpur at 39th with 720 points and Labuan at 44th with 715 points.

Da Nang ranked fifth in the region.

In financial technology, Ho Chi Minh City also improved its ranking, climbing 12 places to 71st globally with 645 points.

Da Nang made its debut in the FinTech ranking at 74th with 638 points.

Commenting on the latest results, Richard D. McClellan, CEO of the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the Vietnam International Financial Center, said Ho Chi Minh City’s rise to 67th, along with Vietnam now having two financial centers in an international ranking, was an encouraging sign.

However, he said the more important factors would be the foundations being built, the quality of the financial ecosystem and the ability to connect with genuine capital flows over the coming years, rather than the result of any single ranking.

The GFCI 40 results follow positive assessments of Ho Chi Minh City in recent surveys.

In GFCI 39, Ho Chi Minh City was among the 15 centers most frequently mentioned by respondents when asked which financial centers would increase in importance over the next two to three years.

It remained among the 15 centers in GFCI 40. Seven of the 15 were in the Asia-Pacific region.

Marc Knapper, former U.S. ambassador to Vietnam and now a member of the strategic advisory group for the Vietnam International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City, also noted that a higher ranking was encouraging but not an end in itself.

“The real measure is whether growing investor confidence translates into genuine capital flows,” Knapper said.

He said this would depend on a predictable regulatory environment, strong investor protection, increasingly deep and broad capital markets, and a highly skilled financial workforce.

GFCI 40 assessed 139 financial centers, with 117 qualifying for inclusion in the ranking.

The index uses 144 quantitative factors from international sources, combined with 39,531 assessments from 6,147 respondents.