Regulatory Sandboxes: Global Experiences and Lessons for Ho Chi Minh City in Implementing the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 98/2023/QH15
Date Published:
25/03/2026
Online Published:
10/12/2025
Section:
Economics and Economic Management
Main Article Content
Abstract
The rapid expansion of digital technologies has intensified regulatory challenges related to innovation, market stability, and consumer protection. Regulatory sandboxes, controlled environments for supervised experimentation, have emerged as key adaptive regulatory tools. This study conducts a PRISMA-based systematic review of 94 eligible studies drawn from academic databases and international institutional sources to examine global sandbox governance, operational models, performance indicators, and implementation challenges. Findings show that sandboxes function as policy learning laboratories, enabling regulators to test emerging technologies, reduce information asymmetries, and refine legal frameworks. Cross-country comparisons reveal substantial variation in governance design, inclusiveness, and market impact. Common challenges include resource constraints, inconsistent participation rates, limited data availability, and cross-border regulatory fragmentation. Effective practices identified across jurisdictions include digitally enabled supervision, standardized KPIs, hybrid sandbox–innovation hub models, and international coordination mechanisms. The study offers evidence-based recommendations to support Vietnam, particularly Ho Chi Minh City, in implementing experimental and adaptive regulatory mechanisms aligned with Resolution 98/2023/QH15.
Keywords
Adaptive governance; Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam); Innovation policy; KPI standardization; Post-exit monitoring; Regulatory sandbox
Article Details
Field of Economic (JEL Codes)
G28 - Government Policy and Regulation - Financial Institutions and Services, H54 - Infrastructures • Other Public Investment and Capital Stock - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies, O31 - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives - O38 - Government Policy - Innovation • Research and Development • Technological Change • Intellectual Property Rights, R52 - Land Use and Other Regulations - Regional Government Analysis
References
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Barany, A., Scarola, A,D., Acquah, A., Reza, S.M., Johnson, M.A., & Walker, J. (2024). Learning designs that empower: Navigating sandbox data science at the intersection of computing, big data, and social media. Information and Learning Sciences, 125(10), 794-812. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-12-2023-0211
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Bennett, C. J., & Raab, C. D. (2020). Revisiting the governance of privacy: Contemporary policy instruments in global perspective. Regulation & Governance, 14(3), 447-464. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12222
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Chaffin, B. C., Gosnell, H., & Cosens, B. A. (2014). A decade of adaptive governance scholarship: Synthesis and future directions. Ecology and Society, 19(3). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26269646
Chen, C., Li, W., Song, W., Ye, Y., Yao, Y., & Li, T. J.-J. (2024, May). An empathy-based sandbox approach to bridge the privacy gap among attitudes, goals, knowledge, and behaviors. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Article 234, pp. 1-28). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642363
Chen, X. (2023). Information moderation principle on the regulatory sandbox. Economic Change and Restructuring, 56, 111-128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10644-022-09415-2
Cohn, E., Kleiman, F. E., Muhammad, S., Jones, S. S., Pourkey, N., & Bier, L. (2024). Returning value to the community through the All of Us Research Program Data Sandbox model. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 31(12), 2980-2984. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocae174
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Cornelli, G., Doerr, S., Gambacorta, L., & Kharroubi, E. (2024). Regulating fintech: Evidence from the Basel Framework. BIS Working Papers No 1100. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4521267
Cornelli, G., Doerr, S., Gambacorta, L., & Merrouche, O. (2024). Regulatory sandboxes and fintech funding: evidence from the UK. Review of Finance, 28(1), 203-233. https://doi.org/10.1093/rof/rfad017
Dolowitz, D. P., & Marsh, D. (2012). The future of policy transfer research. Political Studies Review, 10(3), 339-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-9302.2012.00274.x
Fahy, L. A. (2022). Fostering regulator–innovator collaboration at the frontline: A case study of the UK's regulatory sandbox for fintech. Law & Policy, 44(2), 162-184. https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12184
Ford, C., & Ashkenazy, Q. (2024). The legal innovation sandbox. The American Journal of Comparative Law, 72(3), 557-600. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avae029
Gil-Garcia, J. R., Zhang, J., & Puron-Cid, G. (2016). Conceptualizing smartness in government: An integrative and multi-dimensional view. Government Information Quarterly, 33(3), 524-534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2016.03.002
Gromova, E. A., & Ferreira, D. B. (2025). Regulatory sandbox: Bridging the gaps by designing a dispute resolution system. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 43(1), 91-98. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21482
Johnson, W. G. (2024). Should neurotechnologies go into the sandbox? Nature Biotechnology, 42(6), 837-838. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02254-8
Lauren, F. A. H. Y. (2022). Regulator reputation and stakeholder participation: A case study of the UK’s regulatory sandbox for fintech. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 13(1), 138-157. https://doi.org/10.1017/err.2021.44
Leckenby, E., Dawoud, D., Bouvy, J., & Jónsson, P. (2021). The sandbox approach and its potential for use in health technology assessment: A literature review. Applied health economics and health policy, 19(6), 857-869. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-021-00665-1
Lei, M., Matukumalli, L. K., Arora, K., Weber, N., Malashock, R., Mao, F., Gregurick, S., & Lorsch, J. (2024). NIGMS sandbox: A learning platform toward democratizing cloud computing for biomedical research. Briefings in Bioinformatics, 25(Supplement_1). https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/bbae478
McCarthy, J. (2023). From childish things: The evolving sandbox approach in the EU’s regulation of financial technology. Law, Innovation and Technology, 15(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/17579961.2023.2184131
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National Assembly of Vietnam. (2023). Resolution 98/2023/QH15 on piloting specific mechanisms and policies for Ho Chi Minh City. https://thuvienphapluat.vn/van-ban/EN/Dau-tu/Resolution-98-2023-QH15-pilot-implementation-of-particular-policies-for-development-of-Ho-Chi-Minh/574144/tieng-anh.aspx
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Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2020). The OECD digital government policy framework: Six dimensions of a digital government (OECD Public Governance Policy Papers, No. 2). OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/the-oecd-digital-government-policy-framework_f64fed2a-en
Pham, T. K. K., Le, T. T., Pham, D. T. B., & Nguyen, P. H. (2025). The role of control and power in the relationship between ownership structure and credit risk: A study from Vietnamese banks. Journal of Economics and Development, 27(2), 129-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/JED-09-2024-0322
Ranchordas, S., & Vinci, V. (2024). Policy and Regulatory Sandboxes: Experimenting for Legal Innovation. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4310772
Raudla, R., Juuse, E., Kuokštis, V., Cepilovs, A., Cipinys, V., & Ylönen, M. (2025). To sandbox or not to sandbox? Diverging strategies of regulatory responses to FinTech. Regulation & Governance, 19(3), 917-932. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12630
Schilling de Carvalho, P. (2022). Retaining influence in post-Brexit international financial regulation: Lessons from the UK’s FinTech framework. Journal of Financial Regulation, 8(1), 104-131. https://doi.org/10.1093/jfr/fjac004
Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039
Tran Quoc Thinh (2019). Hoàn thiện khung pháp lý về thị trường phái sinh tiền tệ tại các ngân hàng thương mại Việt Nam [Complete the legal framework for the derivative currency market at Vietnamese commercial banks]. Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Tài chính - Marketing, 51. https://doi.org/10.52932/jfm.vi51.113
Tranfield, D., Denyer, D., & Smart, P. (2003). Towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. British Journal of Management, 14(3), 207–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375
Truby, J., Brown, R. D., Ibrahim, I. A., & Parellada, O. C. (2022). A sandbox approach to regulating high-risk artificial intelligence applications. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 13(2), 270-294. https://doi.org/10.1017/err.2021.52
Vouvoutsis, V., Casino, F., & Patsakis, C. (2025). Beyond the sandbox: Leveraging symbolic execution for evasive malware classification. Computers & Security, 149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2024.104193
World Bank. (2020). Global experiences from regulatory sandboxes (Fintech note No. 8). https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/912001605241080935/pdf/Global-Experiences-from-Regulatory-Sandboxes.pdf
World Bank. (2024). Global experiences from Regulatory Sandboxes. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/912001605241080935/pdf/Global-Experiences-from-Regulatory-Sandboxes.pdf
Zakharova-Goodman, T. (2024). Sandbox: Re/playing assemblages. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 46(5), 736-756. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2024.2379657
Zetzsche, D. A., Buckley, R. P., Arner, D. W., & Barberis, J. N. (2017). Regulating a revolution: From regulatory sandboxes to smart regulation. Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, 23(1), 31–103.
Zetzsche, D. A., Buckley, R. P., Arner, D. W., & Barberis, J. N. (2020). Decentralized finance: On blockchain- and smart contract-based financial markets. Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, 33(2), 425-488. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3544442
Zheng, Y., & Wu, X. (2024). Fostering fintech innovation: A tripartite evolutionary game analysis of regulatory sandbox experiments. International Review of Economics & Finance, 92, 1302-1320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iref.2024.02.060
Alaassar, A., Mention, A.-L., & Aas, T. H. (2021). Exploring a new incubation model for FinTechs: Regulatory sandboxes. Technovation, 103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2021.102237
Allen, F., Gu, X., & Jagtiani, J. (2022). Fintech, cryptocurrencies, and CBDC: Financial structural transformation in China. Journal of International Money and Finance, 124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jimonfin.2022.102625
Aydın, Z., & Yardımcı, O. (2024). Regulatory sandboxes and pilot projects: Trials, regulations, and insights in energy transition. Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal, 56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jestch.2024.101792
Barany, A., Scarola, A,D., Acquah, A., Reza, S.M., Johnson, M.A., & Walker, J. (2024). Learning designs that empower: Navigating sandbox data science at the intersection of computing, big data, and social media. Information and Learning Sciences, 125(10), 794-812. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-12-2023-0211
Beckstedde, E., Ramírez, M. C., Cossent, R., Vanschoenwinkel, J., & Meeus, L. (2023). Regulatory sandboxes: Do they speed up innovation in energy?. Energy Policy, 180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2023.113656
Bennett, C. J., & Raab, C. D. (2020). Revisiting the governance of privacy: Contemporary policy instruments in global perspective. Regulation & Governance, 14(3), 447-464. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12222
Brown, E., & Piroska, D. (2022). Governing fintech and fintech as governance: The regulatory sandbox, riskwashing, and disruptive social classification. New Political Economy, 27(1), 19-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2021.1910645
Chaffin, B. C., Gosnell, H., & Cosens, B. A. (2014). A decade of adaptive governance scholarship: Synthesis and future directions. Ecology and Society, 19(3). https://www.jstor.org/stable/26269646
Chen, C., Li, W., Song, W., Ye, Y., Yao, Y., & Li, T. J.-J. (2024, May). An empathy-based sandbox approach to bridge the privacy gap among attitudes, goals, knowledge, and behaviors. In Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Article 234, pp. 1-28). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642363
Chen, X. (2023). Information moderation principle on the regulatory sandbox. Economic Change and Restructuring, 56, 111-128. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10644-022-09415-2
Cohn, E., Kleiman, F. E., Muhammad, S., Jones, S. S., Pourkey, N., & Bier, L. (2024). Returning value to the community through the All of Us Research Program Data Sandbox model. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 31(12), 2980-2984. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocae174
Cornelli, G., Doerr, S., Gambacorta, L., & Merrouche, O. (2023). Regulatory sandboxes and fintech funding: Evidence from the UK (BIS Working Paper No. 901). Bank for International Settlements. https://www.bis.org/publ/work901.pdf
Cornelli, G., Doerr, S., Gambacorta, L., & Kharroubi, E. (2024). Regulating fintech: Evidence from the Basel Framework. BIS Working Papers No 1100. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4521267
Cornelli, G., Doerr, S., Gambacorta, L., & Merrouche, O. (2024). Regulatory sandboxes and fintech funding: evidence from the UK. Review of Finance, 28(1), 203-233. https://doi.org/10.1093/rof/rfad017
Dolowitz, D. P., & Marsh, D. (2012). The future of policy transfer research. Political Studies Review, 10(3), 339-345. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1478-9302.2012.00274.x
Fahy, L. A. (2022). Fostering regulator–innovator collaboration at the frontline: A case study of the UK's regulatory sandbox for fintech. Law & Policy, 44(2), 162-184. https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12184
Ford, C., & Ashkenazy, Q. (2024). The legal innovation sandbox. The American Journal of Comparative Law, 72(3), 557-600. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avae029
Gil-Garcia, J. R., Zhang, J., & Puron-Cid, G. (2016). Conceptualizing smartness in government: An integrative and multi-dimensional view. Government Information Quarterly, 33(3), 524-534. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2016.03.002
Gromova, E. A., & Ferreira, D. B. (2025). Regulatory sandbox: Bridging the gaps by designing a dispute resolution system. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 43(1), 91-98. https://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21482
Johnson, W. G. (2024). Should neurotechnologies go into the sandbox? Nature Biotechnology, 42(6), 837-838. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02254-8
Lauren, F. A. H. Y. (2022). Regulator reputation and stakeholder participation: A case study of the UK’s regulatory sandbox for fintech. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 13(1), 138-157. https://doi.org/10.1017/err.2021.44
Leckenby, E., Dawoud, D., Bouvy, J., & Jónsson, P. (2021). The sandbox approach and its potential for use in health technology assessment: A literature review. Applied health economics and health policy, 19(6), 857-869. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40258-021-00665-1
Lei, M., Matukumalli, L. K., Arora, K., Weber, N., Malashock, R., Mao, F., Gregurick, S., & Lorsch, J. (2024). NIGMS sandbox: A learning platform toward democratizing cloud computing for biomedical research. Briefings in Bioinformatics, 25(Supplement_1). https://doi.org/10.1093/bib/bbae478
McCarthy, J. (2023). From childish things: The evolving sandbox approach in the EU’s regulation of financial technology. Law, Innovation and Technology, 15(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/17579961.2023.2184131
Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). (2019). FinTech regulatory sandbox guidelines. Singapore: MAS. (Guidelines & Sandbox Express resources). https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Sandbox-Express-Guidelines-7-Jan-2020.pdf
National Assembly of Vietnam. (2023). Resolution 98/2023/QH15 on piloting specific mechanisms and policies for Ho Chi Minh City. https://thuvienphapluat.vn/van-ban/EN/Dau-tu/Resolution-98-2023-QH15-pilot-implementation-of-particular-policies-for-development-of-Ho-Chi-Minh/574144/tieng-anh.aspx
OECD. (2023). Regulatory sandboxes in artificial intelligence. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/regulatory-sandboxes-in-artificial-intelligence_8f80a0e6-en.html
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2020). The OECD digital government policy framework: Six dimensions of a digital government (OECD Public Governance Policy Papers, No. 2). OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/the-oecd-digital-government-policy-framework_f64fed2a-en
Pham, T. K. K., Le, T. T., Pham, D. T. B., & Nguyen, P. H. (2025). The role of control and power in the relationship between ownership structure and credit risk: A study from Vietnamese banks. Journal of Economics and Development, 27(2), 129-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/JED-09-2024-0322
Ranchordas, S., & Vinci, V. (2024). Policy and Regulatory Sandboxes: Experimenting for Legal Innovation. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4310772
Raudla, R., Juuse, E., Kuokštis, V., Cepilovs, A., Cipinys, V., & Ylönen, M. (2025). To sandbox or not to sandbox? Diverging strategies of regulatory responses to FinTech. Regulation & Governance, 19(3), 917-932. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12630
Schilling de Carvalho, P. (2022). Retaining influence in post-Brexit international financial regulation: Lessons from the UK’s FinTech framework. Journal of Financial Regulation, 8(1), 104-131. https://doi.org/10.1093/jfr/fjac004
Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039
Tran Quoc Thinh (2019). Hoàn thiện khung pháp lý về thị trường phái sinh tiền tệ tại các ngân hàng thương mại Việt Nam [Complete the legal framework for the derivative currency market at Vietnamese commercial banks]. Tạp chí Nghiên cứu Tài chính - Marketing, 51. https://doi.org/10.52932/jfm.vi51.113
Tranfield, D., Denyer, D., & Smart, P. (2003). Towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. British Journal of Management, 14(3), 207–222. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375
Truby, J., Brown, R. D., Ibrahim, I. A., & Parellada, O. C. (2022). A sandbox approach to regulating high-risk artificial intelligence applications. European Journal of Risk Regulation, 13(2), 270-294. https://doi.org/10.1017/err.2021.52
Vouvoutsis, V., Casino, F., & Patsakis, C. (2025). Beyond the sandbox: Leveraging symbolic execution for evasive malware classification. Computers & Security, 149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2024.104193
World Bank. (2020). Global experiences from regulatory sandboxes (Fintech note No. 8). https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/912001605241080935/pdf/Global-Experiences-from-Regulatory-Sandboxes.pdf
World Bank. (2024). Global experiences from Regulatory Sandboxes. https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/912001605241080935/pdf/Global-Experiences-from-Regulatory-Sandboxes.pdf
Zakharova-Goodman, T. (2024). Sandbox: Re/playing assemblages. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 46(5), 736-756. https://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2024.2379657
Zetzsche, D. A., Buckley, R. P., Arner, D. W., & Barberis, J. N. (2017). Regulating a revolution: From regulatory sandboxes to smart regulation. Fordham Journal of Corporate & Financial Law, 23(1), 31–103.
Zetzsche, D. A., Buckley, R. P., Arner, D. W., & Barberis, J. N. (2020). Decentralized finance: On blockchain- and smart contract-based financial markets. Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, 33(2), 425-488. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3544442
Zheng, Y., & Wu, X. (2024). Fostering fintech innovation: A tripartite evolutionary game analysis of regulatory sandbox experiments. International Review of Economics & Finance, 92, 1302-1320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iref.2024.02.060
How to Cite
Nguyen , X. T. (2025). Regulatory Sandboxes: Global Experiences and Lessons for Ho Chi Minh City in Implementing the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 98/2023/QH15. Journal of Finance - Marketing Research, 4(1en), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.52932/jfmr.v4i1en.1148