A newly minted collaboration between the Viet Nam International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City (VIFC-HCMC), Touchstone Partners, and Temasek Foundation seeks to convert Vietnam’s climate innovation promise into funded, scalable businesses and to make Ho Chi Minh City a regional conduit for sustainable finance.
Signed on 29 May at the Vietnam-Singapore Tech Connect Forum in the city-state, the trilateral agreement commits the three parties to mobilise international capital, expertise, and networks to accelerate Vietnam’s green transition.
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The pact names Net Zero Challenge 2026 as its first flagship initiative, elevating the annual climate technology competition into a broader platform for investment and market creation.
A pragmatic aim: turn pilots into payoffs
Vietnam has become a high-priority market for climate technology in Southeast Asia. The country has strong comparative advantages: a sizeable manufacturing base, significant agricultural activity, and an increasingly skilled technology workforce. It makes it attractive for both homegrown and imported climate solutions. But moving from pilot projects to commercial outcomes remains a perennial challenge for startups and investors alike.
The new agreement targets four practical levers: support for innovation and the green economy; capital mobilisation and strategic partnerships; ecosystem and market development; and international collaboration. That mix is intentionally pragmatic, focusing on the gaps that typically stall commercialisation, from investment readiness and regulatory sandboxes to market entry and scale.
“Mobilising international capital, accessing advanced technologies and connecting global expertise will be critical,” said Dr Truong Minh Huy Vu, chairman of the VIFC-HCMC executive agency. He framed the financial centre as a regulatory and infrastructure gateway designed to attract “global financial institutions and channel international capital” to Vietnam’s long-term growth priorities.
Touchstone: an investor’s view
Touchstone Partners, a Vietnam-focused investment fund, has been involved with the Net Zero Challenge since its inception and views the new collaboration as a way to leverage existing dealflow and deepen commercial outcomes. The fund has been building an ecosystem around climate tech investments, including a climate fund and vertical programmes such as an energy-efficiency accelerator.
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“This collaboration builds on Touchstone’s successful journey alongside Temasek Foundation and agencies of the Government of Viet Nam to mobilise catalytic capital in support of the country’s green transition,” said Tran Nhat Khanh, managing partner at Touchstone. “Climate solutions made in Vietnam can generate sustainable commercial returns alongside meaningful emissions reduction outcomes.”
Net Zero Challenge: from competition to platform
The Net Zero Challenge began in 2023. Across the first three editions, it attracted some 1,500 climate innovation submissions, mobilised millions of Singapore dollars and supported “tens of” startups and organisations deploying climate solutions in Vietnam. Under the new arrangement, the challenge will be repurposed as an integrated pipeline: source promising technologies, de-risk pilots through partnerships and channel investment and market access via VIFC-HCMC’s financial and regulatory frameworks.
Temasek Foundation’s involvement provides philanthropic and regional convening assets that help bridge public and private sector interests.
“This shared commitment is more than a partnership; it is a catalyst for action,” said Jennie Chua, chairman of Temasek Foundation, signalling an intent to push beyond grantmaking into blended mechanisms that spur commercial adoption.
Regional implications for Southeast Asia
The trilateral pact is notable for more than domestic policy signalling. It represents a Singapore-Vietnam axis that could shape flows of capital and innovation across Southeast Asia. Singapore has been positioning itself as a hub for sustainable finance and a gateway for deploying capital into ASEAN. VIFC-HCMC’s promise of an internationally aligned regulatory platform is attractive to investors seeking clearer frameworks for cross-border transactions and risk management.
For regional startups and corporates, an outcome to watch will be whether the partnership creates repeatable pathways for foreign investors to fund and scale solutions inside Vietnam and then export them across ASEAN markets. If successful, the model could be replicated in neighbouring countries that share similar deployment bottlenecks: insufficient consumer demand signals, regulatory uncertainty and the need for integration with existing industrial systems.
What’s missing from the release
The announcement emphasises strategy and intent but is light on specifics that investors typically seek: the scale of committed capital, timelines for regulatory sandbox rollouts, and precise governance structures for how projects will be selected and financed. The release notes “millions of Singapore dollars” were mobilised by earlier Net Zero Challenge editions (equivalent to several million US dollars), but refrained from firm commitments for the new collaboration.
That opacity is understandable during launch events, yet the hard work will be measured in dollars deployed, pilots commercialised and, crucially, emissions reductions achieved. Observers and market participants will want to see clear metrics and transparent selection processes once Net Zero Challenge 2026 is detailed in July.
Where this could lead
If VIFC-HCMC succeeds in attracting global financial institutions through a credible legal and market framework, Vietnam could access a broader palette of instruments: green bonds, blended concessional capital, and institutional allocations from asset managers seeking climate exposure in emerging Asian markets. For startups, the most immediate gains would be increased access to pilot partners (utilities, agricultural firms, manufacturers), regulatory guidance via sandboxes, and clearer exit pathways for investors.
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For Southeast Asia more broadly, a working model that links philanthropic platforms, domestic financial centres and local venture funds into coordinated pipelines could accelerate the region’s ability to deploy climate technologies at scale. The proof will be in the follow-through: actual capital flows, regulatory reforms enacted and technologies adopted at commercial scale.
Net Zero Challenge 2026 will be the first test of that pipeline. The initiative’s ability to attract higher-quality submissions, de-risk pilots and secure follow-on investment will determine whether the trilateral collaboration remains a strategic statement or becomes a practical engine for Vietnam’s green transition.
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