Identify key challeges of Vietnam open-ended fund
Abstract
Mutual fund industry observed explosive growing in many countries around
the world during the 1990s. The presence of this advanced investment product significantly
supports the financial market in mobilizing saving and investing activities in the securities
market; hence establishing a direct link between savings and capital market, and creating
a stable base for the financial market. There are two main types of mutual fund, closedended fund and open-ended mutual funds. In which, the open-ended fund field is more
attractive in which it offers higher liquidity and serves well with small investors.
In Vietnam, the domestic fund industry has grown for a long time, with initial
closed-ended fund is Mekong Capital. However, almost all closed-ended funds currently
had been expired or extended or transferred to open-ended types, in order to capture more
investing demand of people. For that reason, working on open-ended type gets more
attention from a researcher. In Vietnam, people use the term “mutual fund” to refer current
open-ended funds, and this term is presented in all media as well as marketing procedure
of fund management companies, while it is the misunderstanding on the “mutual fund”
terminology. Recently, there is no official legal definition for mutual fund operation in
Vietnam and the nature of Vietnam mutual funds are investment funds. Nevertheless, the
operational nature and the management process of these open-ended funds follow exactly
the basic operation of open-ended mutual fund, except of the tax treatment. Under the name
“mutual fund”, Vietnam now is expected to accomplish the regulation and tax treatment
on this investment product. Hence, even there are the familiar characteristics, the term
“mutual fund” is used widely in other foreign countries, while in Vietnam context, the
comparable and more appropriate term should be “open-ended investment fund”
Understanding the crucial role of the fund industry to the financial market, the
purpose of this thesis is to deeply analyze the Vietnam fund industry, particularly, identify
the key challenges of Vietnam open-ended funds. The goal will be achieved through
different paths, by the real observation and experience from the mutual fund development
of other Asian countries, such as China, India, Indonesia and Thailand. The reason for
taking indirect way is that the open-ended fund industry in Vietnam is immature within
only two years of development, and hence, there is not sufficient available information and
data which enable to directly evaluate this industry.