Autumn Economic Forum 2026: Gateway for global investors to Ho Chi Minh City int’l financial center

Richard McClellan, chief executive officer of the center, and Marc Knapper, former U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam and a member of the center’s advisory team, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) online newspaper that the forum would offer international investors an opportunity to meet directly with its leadership and gain a clearer understanding of how the financial center operates.

The forum serves as a starting point for engaging investors

“The financial center is part of Ho Chi Minh City,” said McClellan.

“The Autumn Economic Forum 2026 will therefore give us an opportunity to introduce a new mechanism and a new channel for foreign investors to invest in Vietnam in general and Ho Chi Minh City in particular.”

He described the event as an appropriate platform for the financial center and the city to communicate their plans to investors and explain what they are working to establish.

However, he acknowledged that the center’s operating model was not easy to explain in just a few sentences.

“I usually need about 15 minutes to explain the model to an investor before they realize that it represents a genuinely interesting opportunity.”

Helping investors understand the model would be essential to attracting the investment capital the center needs, he elaborated.

Large-scale forums play a key role in bringing people together, signalling opportunities to the market and helping stakeholders understand ongoing developments.

However, McClellan noted that substantive discussions often begin only after an event has ended.

He illustrated the process with a hypothetical example: reaching 1,500 people at the forum could lead to around 100 business cards being exchanged, followed by 30 further discussions and eventually five substantive investment opportunities with investors ready to register with the center.

“This is how we build and manage our pipeline of prospective investors, gradually turning initial interest into concrete transactions,” he said.

The center has held discussions with several hundred investors this year and is now working more intensively with a smaller group to bring its first deals to fruition, according to McClellan.

He stressed that a conference or forum such as the Autumn Economic Forum should be viewed as the beginning of the investment-development process, rather than its conclusion.

“We do not expect specific investment results to materialize immediately at the event.

“The real value lies in the follow-up work, as we continue engaging with prospective investors until those opportunities become actual transactions.”

Building relationships with global financial hubs

Knapper said the Autumn Economic Forum 2026 was taking place at a particularly opportune time for the center.

In less than a year, he noted, the center had progressed from a National Assembly resolution to an operational organization, establishing a legal framework, securing its first founding members and launching an online membership registration system.

Leading Vietnamese banks and securities companies are also setting up specialized subsidiaries within the center.

The next phase will focus on developing international relationships, a process in which the forum could play a significant role.

First, the event will allow decision-makers to meet face to face.

Global investors do not commit capital simply by reading an information brochure, but they need to meet the people running the center and understand how decisions will be made, Knapper said.

Second, the forum will provide an opportunity for the center to listen to international investors and financial institutions.

As the center’s regulations continue to be refined, feedback from international financial institutions could help shape a legal and regulatory framework that meets their needs from the outset.

Third, the event could help the center establish relationships with established financial centers in Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Seoul, London and New York.

Such engagement could include cooperation between regulatory authorities, as well as coordinated efforts to reach investors in those markets.

Building partnerships takes time, Knapper acknowledged.

Nevertheless, the forum could help transform initial interest into discussions and, ultimately, those discussions into concrete commitments to cooperate.

Forum to introduce new members of the int'l financial center

The Autumn Economic Forum 2026 is scheduled to run through Thursday under the theme ‘Collaboration in a New Era.’

The event is expected to bring together more than 1,500 Vietnamese and international delegates, including representatives from at least 22 international VIP delegations.

The main forum sessions, slated for Tuesday and Wednesday, will be organized in collaboration with and co-branded with the World Economic Forum (WEF).

According to information released ahead of the event, the forum is expected to introduce 10 new members of the international financial center in Ho Chi Minh City and present them with membership certificates.

It is also expected to announce 12 new foreign direct investment projects with a combined registered capital of some US$13 billion.