Timeline and Milestones: How the VIFC Went from Politburo Notice to Operational Launch in 14 Months
Why the timeline matters#
Speed is not inherently a virtue in financial regulation. Moving fast can mean cutting corners, leaving gaps, or building institutions that lack the depth to function under stress.
But the VIFC's timeline matters for a different reason: it reveals the political sequencing behind the centre's creation. This was not a bottom-up process driven by market demand or a city-level initiative that gradually gained national support. It was a top-down, centrally directed project that moved from the Politburo to the National Assembly to the Government to city-level Executive Authorities in a deliberate, compressed sequence.
Understanding that sequence — who moved first, what legal instruments were used, and how the pieces lock together — is essential context for anyone assessing the VIFC's institutional credibility. A centre built on a single ministerial decree is easier to reverse than one anchored in a National Assembly resolution with eight implementing decrees and a separate law establishing a specialised court.
The VIFC's legal architecture is, by design, difficult to unwind. The timeline shows how that architecture was assembled.
The four phases#
The VIFC's creation falls into four distinct phases, each with a different institutional character. What follows is the most complete chronological record we have been able to compile from official sources.
Phase 1: Political foundation (November 2024 – January 2025)#
The VIFC began with a political decision at the highest level of Vietnam's Communist Party. Everything that followed was implementation of that decision.
15 November 2024 — Politburo Notice 47-TB/TW. The Politburo issued its formal conclusion approving the establishment of an international financial centre in Ho Chi Minh City and a regional financial centre in Da Nang. This notice defined the objectives, model, principles, and specific tasks — serving as the political "guideline" for the entire project. The Politburo set a goal of establishing the centres by 2025, with a regional-scale centre by 2035 and a global-scale centre by 2045.
December 2024 — Resolution 259/NQ-CP. The Government issued its action plan for implementing the Politburo's conclusion, identifying roughly 50 specific tasks and assigning them to 12 government agencies. This was the project management layer — translating political direction into bureaucratic assignments with deadlines.
31 December 2024 — Decision 1718/QĐ-TTg. The Prime Minister issued a decision establishing the first Steering Committee for IFC development, appointing himself as head and Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Hoa Binh as the Standing Deputy Head. This signalled that the project would operate at the highest administrative level, not through a ministry or city government.
4 January 2025 — HCMC Conference. PM Pham Minh Chinh chaired a conference in Ho Chi Minh City formally announcing the action plan and roadmap. The conference established that Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 and the Thu Thiem New Urban Area would be the core zones for VIFC-HCMC. Vietnam's time zone — different from the 20 largest financial centres globally — was cited as a strategic advantage.
"No matter how difficult it is, it must be done, especially in the context that Vietnam has all the necessary conditions to establish an international financial centre." — PM Pham Minh Chinh, January 4, 2025
Phase 2: Legislative architecture (June – September 2025)#
The Ministry of Planning and Investment drafted the resolution that would provide the VIFC's primary legal basis. The draft went through National Assembly deliberation, including an explanation session before the full assembly.
27 June 2025 — Resolution 222/2025/QH15. The National Assembly adopted the Resolution on International Financial Centres in Vietnam. This is the foundational law — the instrument that creates the VIFC as a legal concept and authorises the special regulatory framework. Key provisions: FX liberalisation, specialised banking licences, capital market for innovative startups, regulatory sandbox with liability shields, 10% CIT for 30 years in priority sectors, up to 10-year visas and permanent residence cards, English as a permitted operating language, and dispute resolution through foreign arbitration and a specialised IFC court.
The Resolution represented a significant upgrade from earlier drafts, including the removal of the originally proposed Central Supervisory Agency, the addition of a clear geographic definition, and the introduction of a membership framework with registration and recognition pathways.
1 September 2025 — Resolution 222 takes effect. The resolution's provisions became legally operative, enabling the Government to begin drafting implementing decrees.
9 September 2025 — Resolution 05/2025/NQ-CP. The Government issued a separate resolution establishing a national pilot crypto asset market. While not part of the VIFC framework directly, this created a parallel regulatory track for digital assets that would interact with the VIFC's own digital asset sandbox. The two frameworks now operate simultaneously — the national pilot under MOF supervision and the VIFC sandbox under IFC Executive Authority licensing.
Phase 3: Decree architecture (November – December 2025)#
The third phase was the most intensive: translating the National Assembly resolution into a comprehensive regulatory system. The Government issued eight decrees in a single batch — an unusual approach that reflected the desire for a coherent, interlocking framework rather than piecemeal implementation.
November 2025 — Binance MOU. Binance signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance to support VIFC development. This was the first visible commitment from a major global digital asset platform to the VIFC project, lending international credibility to the digital asset ambitions set out in the forthcoming decrees.
11 December 2025 — Law on the Specialised Court. The National Assembly passed a separate law establishing the Specialised Court within the IFC. This was a distinct legislative act — not a decree — reflecting the constitutional significance of creating a new judicial body. The court comprises a Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal with jurisdiction over civil and commercial disputes involving IFC members.
18 December 2025 — Eight implementing decrees (Nos. 323–330). The Government issued the entire decree package on a single day:
- Decree 323 — Establishment of the IFC: two locations, governance structure, priority sector catalogue
- Decree 324 — Financial policies: membership, tax, accounting, sandbox mechanism, securities, insurance
- Decree 325 — Labour and employment: flexible foreign worker recruitment, market-rate public servant salaries
- Decree 326 — Land and environment: land allocation, land-use rights, environmental compliance
- Decree 327 — Immigration: 10-year visas, permanent residence, work permit exemptions
- Decree 328 — International Arbitration Centre: foreign governing law, limited judicial intervention
- Decree 329 — Banking, FX, and AML/CFT: IFC member banks, liberalised capital flows, compliance obligations
- Decree 330 — Commodity exchanges: futures, options, derivatives, NFTs as tradeable cultural products
As Tilleke & Gibbins analysed, these eight decrees form four interlocking pillars: institutional foundations, market and financial regulation, operational enablement, and dispute resolution. They are best understood as a single integrated system, not a collection of isolated instruments.
21 December 2025 — VIFC officially established. The Government formally announced the establishment of the Vietnam International Financial Centre in Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City under Decree 323. This was the legal moment of creation — the point at which the VIFC existed as an entity in Vietnamese law.
31 December 2025 — Circular 72/2025/TT-NHNN. The State Bank of Vietnam issued the implementing circular for the FX liberalisation framework under Decree 329. Circular 72 took effect immediately, marking the shift from ex ante licensing to ex post supervision for IFC members' foreign exchange transactions. This was the operational detail that made the decree's FX provisions actually usable.
Phase 4: Operational launch (January – February 2026)#
The final phase moved from law to institutions — standing up the physical offices, announcing members, and beginning international promotion.
9 January 2026 — VIFC-DN inaugurated. The Vietnam International Financial Centre in Da Nang was officially opened at the ICT1 Building, Software Park No. 2. The ceremony announced the commencement of operations and launched the VIFC-DN official website. Da Nang's Executive Authority, led by Ho Ky Minh, outlined plans for digital asset and tokenisation platforms under a regulatory sandbox, a pilot carbon credit exchange, and a centralised commodity exchange for base metals.
18–23 January 2026 — Davos promotion. HCMC hosted a VIFC promotion forum at the World Economic Forum in Davos, presenting the centre to international investors, financial institutions, and policymakers.
20 January 2026 — Crypto licensing opens. The Ministry of Finance issued Decision 96/QĐ-BTC, formally launching pilot administrative procedures for licensing crypto asset trading platforms under the national pilot framework. This was the first time Vietnam operationalised a licensing pathway for crypto operators — a milestone for both the national market and the VIFC's digital asset ecosystem.
24 January 2026 — Reconstituted Steering Committee. Decision 1646/QĐ-TTg established the reconstituted Steering Committee, chaired by PM Chinh with Deputy PM Nguyen Hoa Binh as Standing Deputy Head. The committee's expanded membership includes the Party Secretaries of HCMC and Da Nang, the Ministers of Finance, Planning and Investment, Justice, Industry and Trade, and the Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam, among others. The full roster is in our Who's Who guide.
3–4 February 2026 — Singapore promotion. HCMC hosted a second investment promotion forum in Singapore, targeting Southeast Asian financial institutions and fund managers.
7 February 2026 — Aviation Finance Hub. Vietjet and VIFC-HCMC announced the Asia-Pacific Aviation Finance Hub, with over $6.1 billion to be mobilised through the VIFC for aircraft purchase financing, leasing, aviation insurance, and transport-linked derivatives. Boeing, Airbus, and IATA were cited as supporting partners.
11 February 2026 — VIFC-HCMC formal launch. PM Pham Minh Chinh presided over the formal launch ceremony for the VIFC in Ho Chi Minh City. Founding and strategic members were announced. Permanent Deputy PM Nguyen Hoa Binh presented member certificates. Representatives from domestic and international financial institutions affirmed commitments to participate. The ceremony marked the transition from legal establishment to active operations.
The pace in context#
From Politburo Notice 47-TB/TW to the VIFC-HCMC formal launch: 14 months and 27 days.
That pace is unusual among comparable international financial centres. The DIFC took roughly 18 months from the UAE's federal financial free zones law (2004) to operational opening, but it built on decades of Dubai's existing free zone experience. The AIFC took approximately three years from Kazakhstan's constitutional amendment to its 2018 launch. GIFT City was announced in 2007, became partially operational in 2015, and did not receive its unified regulator (IFSCA) until 2020 — a span of 13 years from concept to regulatory maturity.
Vietnam compressed the political decision, primary legislation, implementing decrees, and institutional stand-up into a single continuous sequence. As Deputy PM Nguyen Hoa Binh noted after the February 11 launch, the legal framework now spans "the Politburo's conclusions, the National Assembly's resolutions, the Government's decrees, and the regulations and guidelines of the Executive Council and Executive Agencies."
Whether speed is an advantage or a risk depends on what comes next. The legal scaffolding is in place. The operating rulebooks, the sandbox implementing rules, the exchange infrastructure, and the first licensing decisions will determine whether the architecture can bear the weight of actual financial activity.
What comes next#
Several milestones are anticipated but not yet confirmed:
IFC Executive Council sandbox rules. The criteria for sandbox admission, testing boundaries, and exit procedures are to be published by the Executive Council. Da Nang is already approving sandbox trials (Basal Pay), suggesting the formal rules will codify practices already emerging on the ground.
VIFC-DN 20-storey building. A 20-storey building at Da Nang Software Park No. 2 is scheduled to begin operations in Q2 2026, housing VIFC functions alongside computing resources for semiconductor research, AI, and cloud computing.
Specialised exchange establishment. Da Nang plans to explore two or three specialised exchanges, including a digital asset platform under a regulatory sandbox, a pilot carbon credit exchange, and a centralised commodity exchange for base metals.
Five-year review (2030/2031). Decree 323 mandates a government review of the IFC's operational efficiency after five years. The scope and methodology of that review are undefined, but it represents the first formal checkpoint in the VIFC's lifecycle.
This timeline will be updated as new milestones are confirmed. If we have missed a significant event, please let us know via our Contact page. Last verified: February 15, 2026.