Frontier Markets, Marginal Flows: Vietnamese Private Outward Investment in Africa and South Asia, 2015–2025 (International Journal of Humanities Education and Social Sciences)
Summary
- By the end of 2025, Vietnamese investors held 1,991 valid overseas investment projects across 85 countries and territories, with cumulative registered capital exceeding US$23.7 billion.p.2
- In 2025 alone, total annual outward direct investment reached approximately US$1.35 billion across 173 new projects and 32 adjusted projects, representing an increase of nearly 89 percent over the previous year.p.2
- State-linked telecom ventures dominate Vietnam's aggregate footprint in Africa, including Viettel's Mozambique project carrying a total value of US$493.79 million with a Vietnamese contribution of US$345.6 million.p.3
- In the first quarter of 2026, Indian investors licensed 30 new projects inside Vietnam worth US$95.22 million, reflecting a persistent bilateral investment asymmetry.p.13
Key insights
- Vietnamese outward direct investment accelerated sharply at the end of the decade, recording 88.7% growth in 2025 and a 2.3-fold year-on-year increase in early 2026.p.10
- Vietnamese OFDI exhibits high geographic concentration, with three destinations accounting for 46.3 percent of total cumulative registered capital.p.11
- Laos captured 53.6 percent of newly registered Vietnamese outward capital in 2025 despite having a population of 7.7 million people.p.12
- Four target frontier markets representing more than 1.7 billion consumers collectively attract well below 1% of Vietnam's cumulative registered outward capital.p.1
- India, Bangladesh, Egypt, and South Africa all score higher on a composite market attractiveness index than traditional destinations like Laos and Cambodia.p.14
- Bilateral investment between India and Vietnam is highly asymmetric, running at a ratio in excess of fifty to one in India's favor.p.13
- The central constraint on Vietnamese private investment in frontier markets stems from home-country facilitation deficits rather than weak host-country fundamentals.p.17
Topics and entities
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