Frontier Vietnam Eyes Step Up to Emerging-Market Big Leagues
- Compliance with MSCI criteria doable by end of year: regulator
- Nation is not on the watch list, says MSCI managing director
Vendors sell Christmas dolls and balloons on a street in Hanoi on December 24, 2013. Vietnam's economy grew 5.42 percent in 2013, picking up speed slightly after its worst performance in more than a decade the previous year, according to an official estimate released on December 23. AFP PHOTO/HOANG DINH NAM (Photo credit should read HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images)
Photographer: Hoang Dinh Nam/AFP via Getty ImagesVietnam says it’s on track to attain the holy grail of emerging-market status, which would put its fledgling capital markets on the radars of the world’s biggest asset managers. Index provider MSCI Inc. isn’t so sure.
All of MSCI’s criteria for emerging-market classification are expected to be met as soon as the end of 2016, Nguyen Son, head of market development at the State Securities Commission, said in an interview in Hanoi. The “most difficult” remaining obstacle is to alter foreign-exchange policy to improve the ease of fund flows, he said. Raman Subramanian, managing director of equity research at MSCI in New York, isn’t convinced, saying the country is not yet on the watch list for emerging-market inclusion.