Vietnam needs to better sovereign credit ratings: ministry

Vietnam becomes an attractive destination to foreign investors (Photo: VNA)

As Vietnam has become a middle-income country and will gradually depend more on foreign commercial loans, the improvement of the sovereign credit ratings will help the Government, businesses, and financial and credit institutions be more cost-effective when mobilising loans or issuing bonds to international capital markets, according to the Ministry of Finance.

On this basis, the ministry has coordinated with relevant agencies to build the National Credit Rating Improvement Project for the 2021-2030 period to be submitted to the Prime Minister for consideration and approval.

The ministry said that in the coming time, sustainable development will continue to be a trend covering the world, and digital economy, circular economy, green growth are the development models chosen by many countries.

In Vietnam, after 35 years of Doi moi (Renewal), a peaceful environment, political stability, and ensured macro-balances are still favourable factors, creating confidence of the business community and people. With the investment environment improved, Vietnam becomes an attractive destination for foreign investors.

However, the economy still sees several expectations and latent risks, including the risk of falling behind and being stuck in the middle-income trap; low science, technology, productivity and competitiveness; large economic openness; and weak resilience.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Therefore, the project’s overall goal is that by 2030, Vietnam is a developing country with modern industry and high middle income, which has an increasingly complete, effective governance institutions; a strongly developing economy on the basis of science and technology in association with improving efficiency in foreign affairs and international integration, continuing to better the investment environment, increasing Vietnam's position and reputation in the international arena, creating favourable conditions to raise the national credit rating to Investment level, and contributing to reducing capital mobilisation costs and national credit risk.

The project also aims for an annual GDP grow rate of 7 percent, GDP per capita of about 7,500 USD (current price) by 2030, and total social investment of 33-35 percent of GDP.

The Vietnamese Government has officially cooperated with all three largest international credit rating agencies, namely Moody's Investors Service (Moody's), S&P Global Ratings (S&P) and Fitch Ratings (Fitch). The effectiveness of the national credit rating, the credit coefficient and outlook have been continuously improved from 2013 to 2021. Specifically, the sovereign credit rating has increased from B2 to Ba3 according to Moody's, from BB- to BB according to S&P's assessment, and from B+ to BB according to Fitch's assessment.

The Ministry of Finance said that the sovereign credit rating is a factor determining the cost of capital mobilisation in international financial markets. This is even more significant when Vietnam becomes a middle-income country, whose source of ODA has to gradually decrease to the end, and must rely more on foreign preferential and commercial loans in international capital markets./.