Vietnam Listed Company Awards 2021 shapes stock market development

Over the past two years, the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the Vietnamese economy. However, the Vietnamese stock market has overcome challenges and achieved impressive growth. The total market capitalisation of the Vietnamese stock market is $7.6 quadrillion, up 44.7 per cent against the end of 2020 and accounting for 121 per cent of Vietnam’s GDP. In ASEAN, the Vietnamese stock market ranks first for Index growth and second for trading value. Some trading sessions even reached $2 billion.

In this context, the Vietnam Listed Company Awards (VLCA) 2021 are co-organised by the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX), the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), and Vietnam Investment Review under the sole sponsorship of Dragon Capital Group to promote the healthy development of the local stock market.

Addressing the awards conference, Le Hai Tra, chairman of the HSX – head of the Organising Committee of VLCA 2021 said, "The COVID-19 pandemic has turned our lives upside down. We have to adjusted to live and work in the new normal. After 14 years, the annual VLCA is organised virtually for the first time."

Along with the pandemic, Vietnam is greatly impacted by climate change. At the recent COP26 meeting, the Vietnamese government has demonstrated its strong commitment to joining forces with other countries to tackle climate change. The comitment is highly recognised by the international community.

To facilitate the goal, Vietnam needs to pay more attention to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations, which is of interest to the investor community worldwide. As a result, the theme for this year's conference is "Listed enterprises and new requirements about information transparency".

"This is a practical topic that needs to be communicated to promote the long-term development of the business community, the stock market, and the Vietnamese economy overall," Tra added.

On the same note, Tran Van Dung, chairman of the State Securities Commission (SSC) said, “Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, listed companies have posted positive revenue and profit results. This is a testament to the resilience of Vietnamese listed companies during the pandemic."

He expressed his pleasure that the VLCA 2021 have evaluated the annual reports of 500 listed companies in the VN Allshare index. The results show that they have made great strides in enhancing the quality and form of the reports. Besides improvement in corporate governance, Vietnamese listed companes are also producing more sustainable development reports this year. This is the postive news for the stock market as well as investors alike.

In the next decade, under the direction of the government and the Ministry of Finance, SSC will focus on the stock market development strategy for 2021-2030 to promote growth in scale, depth, and sustainability. This year, there has been a record number of new investors entering the stock market. This trend is expected continue to rise in the near future as both supply and demand sides develop. In this context, transparency and reliability of information are critical to ensure the rapid and long-term growth of the stock market, according to Dung.

"Thus, the organisation of VLCA is necessary for both the stock market and investors. Hopefully, the awards will continue to improve the quality and become the main criteria to evaluate listed firms on the Vietnamese bourses," he added.

Meanwhile, Dominic Scriven, chairman of Dragon Capital was very pleased to be a sponsor of the VLCA. Dragon Capital has accompanied the VLCA Organising Committee for 14 consecutive years to promote transparency towards good practices of corporate governance and sustainable development.

He added, "There have been pressing requirements among relevant stakeholders to combat climate change, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and protect biodiversity. We hope that Vietnamese listed companies should take quick action to measure and manage their carbon footprint. They should also make changes step by step to reduce greenhouse emissions and cover the information in their annual reports."