Vietnamese government eyes bigger stock market

The Vietnamese government wants the local stock market to post annual growth of 150 percent so that its value will reach 16 billion U.S. dollars by 2010, local newspaper Saigon Liberation reported Tuesday.

Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, while visiting the Hanoi Securities Trading Center on Monday, said the bourse needs to record the annual growth of 150 percent, but in a sustainable manner. To this end, Vietnam should get more experience from stock markets of many foreign countries, he said.

Vietnam is striving to feed the local bourse with shares of equalized foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), equitized state-owned enterprises operating in such important fields as telecommunications and electricity, and commercial banks.

Vietnam's biggest joint stock commercial bank with registered capital of 1.25 trillion Vietnamese dong (VND) (over 78.6 million dollars), Sacombank, is making necessary preparations for listing some time this year, local stock analysts said, noting that it is likely to become the first bank to list in the country's bourse.

By Feb. 6, Vietnam had 35 kinds of listed shares, 327 kinds of listed bonds, mostly government bonds, and one listed investment fund, with combined face value of roughly 44,129 billion VND (nearly 2.78 billion U.S. dollars).

When Vietnam's first securities trading center, Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center, became operational in July 2000, there were only two kinds of listed shares with total value of some 17.3 million dollars.

Besides the center in southern Ho Chi Minh City for trading listed shares, bonds and investment fund certificates, Vietnam established the Hanoi Securities Trading Center last March.

The Hanoi-based center is a place for shares of equitized state-owned enterprises and shares held by the state in joint stock companies to be auctioned, and shares of unlisted joint stock firms, mainly small-and medium-sized ones, to be traded under the mode of negotiation.

Source: Xinhua