Chinese consumers can be a big growth driver in Asian markets

To spur trading and valuations on its stock markets and be on par with Singapore, Hong Kong or Malaysia, Vietnam must open the doors wider to foreign investors.

Otherwise, "there is a long way to go for Vietnam", says Bui Quang Ngoc, CEO of FPT, a Vietnamese conglomerate.

A series of initiatives in Asia could help the country reverse this direction. More bourses are working together to facilitate mutual investment and a growing web of cross-investment deals is already visible and poised to grow.

In the Asia-Pacific region, there are different forms of mutual market access, explains Melody He, head of capital markets at CSOP Asset Management. As the 2015 launch of the ASEAN Economic Community, a single regional market, approaches, many of the 10 members of the association are already working more closely together than ever before.

On Aug 25, three ASEAN stock markets - Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand - took the first solid steps toward more integrated markets after years of planning. The ASEAN Collective Investment Scheme framework allows fund managers to offer cross-border funds directly to retail investors in these countries.

The program works on the back of ASEAN capital market integration, which aims to allow brokers in one country to trade in the others.

The ASEAN project is just one of several in the region. A similar effort between the Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong stock exchange could facilitate more access to investors in both markets.

This upcoming Shanghai and Hong Kong MMA agreement, known as the 'through train program', will allow investors from the Chinese mainland that meet certain conditions to invest in Hong Kong stocks while opening the door for more investors in Hong Kong to invest in Shanghai.

Observers expect the through train program to benefit both sides. On the one hand, the outflows of capital out of China could grow as investors pour money into more transparent Hong Kong stocks. This could help with the ongoing internationalization of the yuan. A recent study by the Bank of England suggested China's gross international investment position could increase from 5 percent to over 30 percent of global GDP by 2025.

If successful, the through train program could lead to the inclusion of Shanghai A shares (denominated in yuan) in global stock indices as early as 2016.

Such inclusion could generate as much as $8.3 billion in new demand for these stocks, says Francis Cheung, head of Mainland-Hong Kong strategy at investment brokerage CLSA.

Credit Suisse's head of China research, Vincent Chan, agrees that the inclusion would increase the internationalization of the A share market, but says the impact of the internationalization of the Asia market is likely to be more limited until Chinese institutional investors become big investors in overseas markets.

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