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Ho Chi Minh City is officially entering a new phase in its digital financial development strategy as the Ho Chi Minh City Digital Asset Investment Fund is launched with the ambition to reach a scale of 1 billion USD in subsequent phases. This is considered one of the important steps to position Ho Chi Minh City as an international financial center, an on-chain hub, and a leading innovation center in Southeast Asia.
On the afternoon of February 8, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology, in collaboration with the Vietnam International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City (VIFC-HCMC), organized an investment promotion conference for digital technology infrastructure and large data centers. The event attracted the participation of Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen Van Duoc, Vice Chairman Nguyen Manh Cuong, and about 150 delegates representing ministries, technology companies, investment funds, and financial organizations both domestically and internationally. The conference is considered an important forum to connect capital flows, technology, and policies to serve the goal of building a smart city and international financial center in Ho Chi Minh City.
According to a representative of VIFC-HCMC, the focus of the next phase is to invest in modern financial technology infrastructure, with hyperscale data centers and digital financial platforms playing a key role. Ho Chi Minh City is oriented to become a “financial transit station” for global investors, not only attracting capital into Vietnam but also supporting cross-border capital flows in a safe, transparent, and efficient manner, while ensuring national monetary security.
A notable point is the orientation to build a centralized hybrid clearing system at VIFC-HCMC, moving towards applying blockchain technology as a layer for transaction reconciliation and settlement. This model allows for shortening the payment time to T+0, suitable for digital financial products, digital assets, and on-chain transactions that are growing strongly worldwide. Simultaneously, VIFC-HCMC is also researching the development of a SuperApp with a single wallet model, enabling customers of member organizations to invest and transfer assets quickly between exchanges and platforms within the international financial center ecosystem.
Within the framework of the conference, a series of important memorandums of understanding and cooperation agreements were signed, demonstrating the strong determination of both the public and private sectors in building digital financial infrastructure. The G42 Group, along with a consortium of domestic investors, signed a long-term cooperation framework agreement to develop a large-scale data center system in Vietnam, with a total investment expected to reach 2 billion USD. This is considered an indispensable infrastructure foundation for future digital financial services, artificial intelligence, and the data economy.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Science and Technology also signed a memorandum of understanding with VinaCapital, representing an alliance of investors including FPT, VinaCapital, and Viet Thai, to develop a large data center associated with an innovation, creativity, and technology complex in Ho Chi Minh City. This model aims to form a complete digital technology-financial ecosystem where startups, technology companies, financial organizations, and investment funds can develop together.
In addition, the Management Board of the Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park signed an agreement with VinaCapital to promote data infrastructure projects combined with green energy solutions. Sustainable development factors are prioritized to meet the operational requirements of new-generation data centers in the context of increasing energy consumption.
Most notably, the International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the VinaCapital joint venture and the Global On-Chain Economic Alliance to research, develop, and operate the Ho Chi Minh City Digital Asset Fund, also known as the HCMC Digital Asset Fund. This fund is oriented to become a market-creating capital source, playing the role of “seed capital” to promote the digital asset ecosystem, blockchain, and decentralized financial models within the framework of the international financial center.
According to the roadmap divided into several phases, the HCMC Digital Asset Fund aims to mobilize and deploy capital to reach a scale of 1 billion USD, focusing on areas such as blockchain infrastructure, transparently managed digital assets, fintech, big data, and on-chain models serving the real economy. In the context of digital asset trends being legalized and more tightly managed by many countries, Ho Chi Minh City’s proactive establishment of a digital asset fund is seen as an early and strategic move.
