Hanoi, 08 May 2026. The FTU DataCore partnership took its first official step today as DataCore hosted a delegation from the Faculty of International Economics, Foreign Trade University (FTU), at our Hanoi office. The full department came over for a company tour, a working session, and an introduction to FTU's Master's and PhD programmes in International Economics.
This post is also available in Vietnamese: Bài viết Tiếng Việt.
This visit lays the groundwork for a planned Memorandum of Understanding between DataCore and the Faculty, formalising the FTU DataCore partnership as an industry and academia collaboration over the coming year. The two sides agreed to move quickly on a working roadmap, with the goal of signing the MOU within the next academic term.
What the FTU DataCore partnership visit covered
The Faculty delegation, led by senior academic staff, met with the DataCore team for an open working session covering:
- A walkthrough of DataCore's Vietnam financial and macro datasets, including coverage of equities, fixed income, FX, and corporate fundamentals.
- A demonstration of how DataCore's data infrastructure is used by analysts, asset managers, and quantitative researchers in Vietnam.
- A presentation by the Faculty introducing FTU's Master's and PhD programmes in International Economics, the research focus areas of its faculty members, and the profile of its postgraduate cohorts.
- A discussion on how DataCore data can support empirical research in international trade, capital flows, financial development, and Vietnam macro policy.
Why the FTU DataCore partnership matters in 2026
Vietnam's financial data ecosystem is still maturing in 2026. High-quality, well-documented datasets are the bottleneck for serious empirical work, in both industry and academia. A direct working relationship between a domestic data provider and a leading economics faculty is one of the most efficient ways to close that gap, and the FTU DataCore partnership is built around that conviction.
For DataCore, working with the Faculty of International Economics at FTU means:
- Research grounded in verified, sourced Vietnam data rather than what is available second hand.
- A pipeline of analytically trained graduates who already understand DataCore's methodology and data structures.
- A two way feedback loop. Faculty researchers stress test our data; we improve coverage and documentation accordingly.
For FTU's Faculty of International Economics, the collaboration is intended to provide:
- Structured access to DataCore's Vietnam data for postgraduate research, theses, and faculty publications.
- Industry exposure for Master's and PhD candidates through internships, joint projects, and guest sessions.
- A long term partner committed to Vietnamese language and English language data products at equal weight.
FTU DataCore partnership: next steps
The two sides agreed on a working roadmap that includes:
- Drafting a Memorandum of Understanding covering data access for research, internships, joint events, and co authored publications. Target signing within the next academic term.
- A first guest session by the DataCore team at the Faculty, focused on data sources and methodology for Vietnam macro and capital markets research.
- Scoping an initial pilot research project using DataCore datasets, to be announced once the working group is confirmed.
DataCore would like to thank the Dean and the Faculty of International Economics for the visit, the flowers, and the warm session. We look forward to formalising the FTU DataCore partnership and to working together on serious empirical research on the Vietnamese economy.
This post is also available in Vietnamese: đọc bằng Tiếng Việt.
About Foreign Trade University: Vietnam's Leading School for International Economics
Foreign Trade University (Truong Dai hoc Ngoai Thuong - FTU) is one of Vietnam's most prestigious universities for economics, trade, and finance. Founded in 1960 and headquartered in Hanoi with a second campus in Ho Chi Minh City, FTU has trained generations of Vietnamese economists, trade negotiators, bankers, and financial analysts who now occupy senior roles across government, multilateral institutions, and the private sector.
The Faculty of International Economics, which hosted the FTU DataCore partnership delegation, is the university's flagship academic department and one of the strongest programs for empirical trade and macroeconomics research in Southeast Asia.
FTU's research output consistently contributes to policy debates on Vietnam's trade agreements, exchange rate management, and capital account liberalization. Faculty members have consulted for the Ministry of Finance, the State Bank of Vietnam (Ngan hang Nha nuoc Viet Nam - NHNN), and ASEAN-level economic research bodies.
Master's and PhD candidates at the Faculty of International Economics regularly produce dissertations on topics that intersect directly with DataCore's product areas: capital flows, equity market efficiency, corporate governance in listed Vietnamese firms, and the macroeconomic impact of foreign direct investment (FDI).
The FTU DataCore partnership connects this research tradition to real-world financial data infrastructure. For FTU researchers, it provides access to structured, machine-readable datasets that move empirical work beyond reliance on manually compiled data from secondary sources. For DataCore, it creates a pipeline of analytically trained graduates and a source of rigorous academic validation for DataCore's data quality and methodology.
DataCore's Data Products Relevant to International Economics Research
DataCore's platform covers the financial data segments most relevant to international economics research in Vietnam. Under the FTU DataCore partnership, faculty and advanced degree candidates will gain structured access to the following data families.
Equity market data. Full historical price, volume, and corporate action data for all listed equities on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) and the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), dating back to market inception. Adjusted for splits, dividends, and delistings. Ideal for studies of market efficiency, investor behavior, and the financial performance of Vietnamese listed firms across trade liberalization cycles.
Fixed income and interest rate data. Government bond yield curves, corporate bond issuance records, and interbank rates from NHNN and the Vietnam Bond Market Association (Hieu hoi Thi truong Trai phieu Viet Nam - VBMA). Particularly useful for research on monetary policy transmission, interest rate parity, and the development of Vietnam's domestic capital market.
Foreign exchange and corporate fundamentals data. Spot and forward rates, NHNN reference rate history for VND cross rates, plus standardized financial statement data for Vietnamese listed companies going back to 2005. Enables firm-level empirical work on investment, financing decisions, and exchange rate effects on corporate performance - core topics within the FTU DataCore partnership's research scope.
What the Planned FTU DataCore Partnership MOU Will Cover
The working roadmap agreed during the 08 May 2026 visit outlines four pillars for the formal MOU that will govern the FTU DataCore partnership going forward.
Academic data access. Faculty members and registered research students receive credentialed access to DataCore's platform for non-commercial academic research, scoped to the project and reviewed annually. DataCore provides onboarding documentation and a dedicated support contact for the Faculty of International Economics.
Internship program. The FTU DataCore partnership will include a recurring internship allocation for FTU students in data engineering, financial analysis, and product research tracks. Internships are structured as semester-length placements with direct-hire pathways for strong performers. Priority in the first intake goes to Master's candidates who use DataCore data in their thesis work.
Joint events and guest sessions. DataCore will send practitioners to FTU for at least two curriculum-integrated sessions per academic year. The first session, expected in the second half of 2026, will cover Vietnam's financial data ecosystem and practical methodology for international economics research. FTU faculty will be invited to DataCore's campus events and industry panels as expert speakers.
Co-authored publications. The FTU DataCore partnership will actively seek jointly authored research. DataCore's analysts will collaborate with FTU researchers on selected projects where proprietary data access materially advances the research question. Publication venues will be selected jointly, with preference for journals indexed in Scopus or the Web of Science.
Why 2026 Is the Right Time for the FTU DataCore Partnership
Two structural shifts in Vietnam's financial and academic landscape make 2026 a particularly well-timed moment to formalize the FTU DataCore partnership.
The first is Vietnam's push toward empirical, data-driven policymaking. The government's National Strategy for the Development of Vietnam's Stock Market to 2030 explicitly calls for improved data infrastructure and deeper quantitative capacity in financial research institutions. Universities that equip graduates with hands-on financial data skills are positioned to contribute directly to this policy agenda.
The FTU DataCore partnership supports this goal by reducing the data access gap between Vietnamese academic economists and their counterparts at research universities in Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan, where structured financial databases have been standard research tools for over a decade.
The second shift is the maturation of DataCore's platform. In 2024 and 2025, DataCore completed a major expansion of its historical data depth, extending corporate fundamentals coverage back to 2005 for all HOSE and HNX-listed companies, and adding secondary market transaction data to its fixed income coverage.
These additions make the platform qualitatively more useful for longitudinal empirical research - exactly what Master's and PhD programs at FTU require. The FTU DataCore partnership launches at the moment when the platform is genuinely research-grade.
Together, these two shifts mean the FTU DataCore partnership can produce meaningful research outputs in its first year rather than spending that time on foundational data infrastructure. The Faculty of International Economics brings the analytical rigor and the research agenda; DataCore brings the data, the tooling, and the industry perspective. The MOU formalizes a natural institutional fit between two organizations working toward the same goal: better empirical understanding of how Vietnam's economy and financial markets actually work.
DataCore views the FTU DataCore partnership as part of a broader commitment to raising the quality of financial data research in Vietnam. Every institutional data partnership DataCore forms contributes to a national ecosystem where policy decisions, investment strategies, and corporate finance choices are increasingly grounded in rigorous empirical evidence rather than anecdote or incomplete data. FTU's tradition of producing graduates who go on to shape policy and business strategy makes it an ideal long-term partner in this effort.
DataCore looks forward to the formal signing of the MOU and to reporting on research outcomes, internship placements, and joint publications as the FTU DataCore partnership matures over the coming academic years. Progress updates will be published on datacore.vn and shared directly with the Faculty of International Economics at FTU.
Career Pathways: How FTU Students Can Join DataCore
The FTU DataCore partnership opens three practical engagement pathways for students at the Faculty of International Economics.
The research data pathway is for Master's and PhD candidates who want to use DataCore datasets as the empirical foundation of their dissertations. Students submit a brief research proposal to the Faculty and DataCore jointly. Upon approval they receive platform access for the duration of their thesis work. DataCore analysts provide one orientation session per project cohort covering data structure, API access, and citation standards for academic publications.
The internship pathway targets Bachelor's-final and Master's students interested in financial data roles. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. DataCore evaluates candidates on analytical skills, SQL or Python proficiency, and demonstrated interest in Vietnam's financial markets. Successful interns join one of DataCore's data product teams for a structured 16-week placement with defined deliverables and a direct-hire review at the close of the internship.
The full-time hiring pathway is the natural endpoint of both tracks. FTU graduates who have worked with DataCore data arrive with familiarity with its structure and quality standards, making onboarding significantly faster than typical external hires. The FTU DataCore partnership's long-term goal is to build a cohort of FTU-trained analysts who join DataCore with both the econometric skills to interrogate the data and the domain knowledge to interpret it within Vietnam's institutional and policy context.
Frequently asked questions about the FTU DataCore partnership
What research areas does the FTU DataCore partnership focus on?
The FTU DataCore partnership focuses on empirical research in international trade, capital flows, financial development, and Vietnam macroeconomic policy. Master's theses and PhD dissertations can draw on DataCore equity data, fixed income data, FX data, and corporate fundamentals data.
Who at FTU can take part in the FTU DataCore partnership?
In the early phase of the FTU DataCore partnership the focus is Master's candidates, PhD researchers, and faculty members of the Faculty of International Economics at Foreign Trade University. Bachelor's students can engage via student research projects and the internship track.
When will the FTU DataCore partnership MOU be signed?
Both sides target signing the Memorandum of Understanding for the FTU DataCore partnership within the next academic term. The detailed roadmap, signing parties, and final scope are being finalised by the working group and will be announced on official DataCore channels.
What data formats does the FTU DataCore partnership provide?
Under the FTU DataCore partnership, researchers receive access to DataCore's API and flat-file exports in CSV and JSON formats. Equity, fixed income, FX, and corporate fundamentals data are available at daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly frequencies. DataCore provides a data dictionary and sample Jupyter notebooks (Python and R) for each major dataset so FTU researchers can begin empirical work quickly without extensive pre-processing.
How does the FTU DataCore partnership compare with DataCore's other university collaborations?
The FTU DataCore partnership is one of five active university partnerships in DataCore's network, alongside HVNH (Banking Academy of Vietnam), HUST (Hanoi University of Science and Technology), HCMUT (Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology), and NEU (National Economics University). The FTU collaboration is distinctive for its focus on international economics and macrofinance. It is the only DataCore university partnership that explicitly targets co-authored publications in trade economics and macroeconomics journals as a primary output alongside the internship and data access tracks.
DataCore expects the FTU collaboration to generate published academic research within two years of MOU signing, given the Faculty's existing research pipeline and the data depth now available on the platform.
Can FTU researchers publish papers using DataCore data without restriction?
Publication of academic research using data accessed under the FTU DataCore partnership is encouraged and unrestricted for peer-reviewed academic venues. DataCore asks for acknowledgment in the data sources section of published papers (standard citation format: DataCore Vietnam Financial Data Platform, datacore.vn, accessed YYYY-MM). DataCore does not claim co-authorship rights for data access alone. Where DataCore analysts contribute substantively to research design, co-authorship will be agreed upon in advance.
Commercial use of DataCore data requires a separate commercial license outside the academic program. DataCore is committed to keeping the academic publication pathway as open as possible because published research citing DataCore data increases both the visibility and the credibility of Vietnam's financial data ecosystem.
An outcome that benefits all participants in the FTU DataCore partnership and the broader research community.
About DataCore. DataCore is a Vietnam focused financial and macroeconomic data platform serving analysts, asset managers, fintech builders, corporate finance teams, and academic researchers. All data products are published in English and Vietnamese with equal weight.
About the Faculty of International Economics, FTU. The Faculty of International Economics is part of Foreign Trade University, one of Vietnam's leading universities in economics, international business, and trade. The Faculty offers Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD programmes in International Economics.
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