Once known primarily for its rapid growth and cost competitiveness, Vietnam is now facing a different challenge: how can it become a place where top professionals, investors, and international institutions want to come and stay for the long term?
In the 400th episode of Vietnam Innovators, Jens Lottner, CEO of Techcombank, and Michael Kokalari, Chief Economist at VinaCapital, approach this question from two different perspectives.
For Lottner, it is both personal and practical. Having spent more than six years working in Vietnam, he also leads a bank that is actively recruiting talent from some of the world’s major financial hubs. For Kokalari, the talent question is closely tied to Vietnam’s ability to attract international capital and build a globally competitive financial ecosystem.
Their perspectives converge on one point: growth potential alone will not secure Vietnam’s competitive edge. The country also needs an environment where people, capital, and ideas can enter, thrive, and stay.
People Are The Most Important Pillar
At Techcombank, data, digitalization, and talent form the three strategic pillars of its transformation. The bank has invested around US$500 million across these areas over the past five years, with total investment expected to reach US$1 billion over the next five. Yet for Lottner, talent remains the most important of the three.
Technology can be acquired, and successful data models can eventually be replicated. What is much harder to copy is the team capable of turning those investments into products, customer experiences, and continuous innovation.
Techcombank has therefore expanded its search beyond traditional banking profiles to include talent in technology, data, AI, product development, as well as specialists and senior leaders with experience in developed markets.
To attract these professionals, the bank emphasizes something that goes beyond organizational scale or compensation: the opportunity to create meaningful impact at scale.
In mature markets, a highly experienced professional may spend years optimizing a small part of an already sophisticated system. In Vietnam, that same person can help build new capabilities, develop new products, and influence how tens of millions of people access financial services.
For Lottner, top talent is often looking for more than a job or an attractive paycheck. What matters is the opportunity to make an impact and contribute to meaningful change.
Michael Kokalari places the talent discussion within a broader question: how attractive is Vietnam to international investors?
Global capital has been flowing out of many emerging markets, while the United States and the AI investment boom continue to absorb significant amounts of funding. Against this backdrop, Vietnam cannot rely solely on its past growth story to sustain investor attention.
For Kokalari, Vietnam needs to strengthen its appeal as an investment destination as global capital shifts. That appeal extends beyond GDP growth. Investors also look at earnings potential, long-term prospects, and how easily capital can enter and exit a market.
This is where the Vietnam International Financial Centre (VIFC) enters the conversation. Vietnam needs additional capital to finance infrastructure, digital transformation, and its next stage of development. If most financing continues to flow through the balance sheets of domestic banks, however, the system will struggle to meet the full scale of that demand.
An international financial centre could create additional channels for investment funds, insurers, asset managers, and global financial institutions to identify and access opportunities in Vietnam. To attract them, the country will need more than a physical location or an internationally branded financial district.
Its regulatory framework, tax policies, capital mobility, and talent pool will all need to compete with established hubs such as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai.
Seen this way, attracting capital and attracting talent are two sides of the same equation. International financial institutions bring more than money: they also bring specialists, operating expertise, and global networks.
Taking Vietnam’s Talent Search Global
Rather than waiting for candidates to find opportunities in Vietnam, Techcombank has taken its recruitment efforts directly to major financial and technology hubs.
Between 2022 and 2025, its annual Overseas Talent Roadshow reached Sydney, Hong Kong, Singapore, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Paris - cities that combine strong financial and technology ecosystems with sizable overseas Vietnamese communities.
The journey is set to continue in 2026, with Techcombank Overseas Talent Roadshow events planned for Singapore on October 23-24 and London on November 13-14, connecting international professionals and overseas Vietnamese with career opportunities in Vietnam.
What makes these trips notable is the level of senior involvement. Lottner travels with a group of six or seven of the bank’s senior leaders, spending two to three days in each city to meet candidates directly. They are also joined by employees who have already made the move back to Vietnam, people who have faced the same decision Techcombank is now asking prospective candidates to consider.
The target pool includes international specialists and Vietnamese professionals who have studied and built careers overseas.
For overseas Vietnamese, the idea of returning can become more compelling as parents grow older or as they begin thinking about giving their children a stronger connection to their roots. But emotional ties alone are rarely enough to justify leaving behind a career built over many years.
Techcombank therefore has to demonstrate that returning to Vietnam does not mean compromising on technological sophistication, professional standards, or career progression.
The success of each roadshow is also measured beyond immediate hires. In every city, the bank is gradually building a network of professionals and potential candidates. Someone who is not ready to return today may reconsider in one or two years or introduce the opportunity to someone else who is.
A Successful VIFC Will Need an Entire Ecosystem
Discussing the Vietnam International Financial Centre, both Kokalari and Lottner emphasize that domestic banks can only be one part of the equation.
According to the Techcombank CEO, Vietnam will need approximately US$200-300 billion in capital over the next five years. For that money to find its way into the economy, the country needs an effective “conduit” such as the VIFC - a platform where investors can identify opportunities, deploy capital, and have confidence that they can eventually exit those investments.
Vietnam cannot build an international financial centre around one or two banks or the institutions already operating in the country. It will need thousands of funds, investment banks, insurers, fintech companies, asset managers, and professional service providers to see Vietnam as a genuine opportunity. And these institutions will not arrive alone.
They will need lawyers, tax specialists, analysts, technology engineers, risk professionals, and people who understand both international standards and the local market.
Policies affecting international talent therefore become more than administrative matters. The time required to obtain a work permit, the tax regime, and the ease with which professionals can relocate may directly influence how quickly the broader financial ecosystem develops.
Rather than trying to design a perfect model from day one, Lottner suggests starting with concrete cases, identifying what works, and adjusting accordingly. This allows policy to evolve around real-world needs rather than remain theoretical.
What Does It Take To Move An Entire Family To Vietnam?
The professionals Techcombank wants to recruit have options, Lottner acknowledges. They can remain in Singapore, London, or Hong Kong, where the quality of life and supporting infrastructure are already sophisticated and familiar. Compensation, therefore, needs to be globally competitive. Techcombank is prepared to pay more for a leaner team if that means hiring the right people with the right capabilities.
Yet the bank is not looking for candidates whose only motivation is a higher salary. It is looking for people who want to make an impact and can see themselves contributing to the organization over the long term.
And once the conversation moves beyond the job itself, a different set of questions emerges: How straightforward is the work permit process? What will life be like for their family? Where will their children go to school? Will the healthcare system meet their needs?
A company can create an attractive role with compelling benefits. But convincing a professional to relocate an entire family to Vietnam requires something larger: the prospect of building a sustainable life here.
At that point, talent attraction is no longer solely the responsibility of an HR department or even an individual company. Retaining global talent depends on the policies, infrastructure, and quality of life that the wider market can provide
Talent And Capital Move In The Same Direction
Throughout the conversation, Jens Lottner brings the perspective of a business actively competing for talent on the global stage. Michael Kokalari adds the macroeconomic lens, looking at capital flows and Vietnam’s position in the eyes of international investors.
One begins with people; the other with capital markets. Both arrive at a similar conclusion: Vietnam needs an ecosystem compelling enough for global talent and resources to come, create value, and stay.
Technology can accelerate development. AI can reshape how businesses operate. Capital can expand the scale of investment. But turning those forces into real opportunities and sustainable growth still depends on people who know how to connect them with the needs of the market.
The 400th episode of Vietnam Innovators ultimately opens up a broader conversation about Vietnam’s next chapter. From Techcombank’s talent strategy to the prospects of an international financial centre, the ambition points in the same direction: moving Vietnam from a market with great potential to a destination where global talent and capital genuinely want to be.
Watch the full 400th episode of Vietnam Innovators on Vietnam Innovators Digest’s YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts channels.