The State Bank of Vietnam has allowed commercial banks and gold trading businesses to trade the precious metal via accounts abroad, local newspaper Youth reported Monday.

Commercial banks with gold deposit mobilization of at least 500 kg, and enterprises with their equity of 100 billion Vietnamese dong (over 6.3 million U.S. dollars) upward are eligible to trade gold abroad. The move will help increase gold exchanges between the domestic market and foreign ones.

Vietnam may reduce the import tax on gold bullion to 0.5 percent from current 1 percent in the future, aiming to raise the competitiveness of local gold products, the country's Finance Ministry announced recently.

Vietnam imported some 40 tons of gold in the first 7 months of 2005 and 65 tons in 2004. Nearly half of the precious metal imported in the 7 months was used for crafting jewelry products for local sale and export, according to local gold traders.

Now, the country houses around 8,000 gold trading businesses.

Source: Xinhua