Vietnam News

[huytran]

I work for a securities company at Hanoi Capital- Vietnam. By searching Google, I found this forum. Being the member of a stock forum will help us so much on getting information to make right decision. I do hope that I could help to make our forum to be more active and helpful. This box is the place I post the Vietnam Stock Market News.

You would get the information about Vietnam securities market and some listed company via web: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/cbuilder?ticker1=VNINDEX%3AIND

I also have many reports about Vietnam stock market by some foreign institutes such as: Merrill Lynch, HSBC, Citibank.. but i don't know how to post them up, so if someone needs I will sent via email.

Now, the news:

Wednesday, 20/08/2008
Foreign shareholdings at local banks stay at almost 30 percent

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has confirmed of no increase in foreign shareholdings at Vietnamese banks which stay at almost 30 percent of charter capital of a local bank.

The SBV said according to article 4 of decree 69, foreign shareholders rather than credit institutions may hold no more than 5 percent of a local bank’s charter capital. This shareholding limit is 10 percent for foreign credit institutions and 15 percent for foreign strategic partners in local banks.

In special cases, the Prime Minister will decide whether foreign investors would be able to increase in the shareholdings as the SBV proposed, but the rates would not surpass 20 percent of a bank’s charter capital.

Recently, the SBV has licensed some commercial banks, including the Vietnam Private Bank (VPBank), the joint-stock Southern Bank and the joint stock Southeast Asia Bank (SeaBank) to sell their shares to foreign strategic investors.

[huytran]

Vietnam’s investment environment is now much more attractive than before. Inflows of FDI into the country have increased dramatically since its official entry to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in early 2007. According to the Overseas Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), FDI reached US$31 billion in the first half of this year, up four times compared to the same period last year. Among 487 new projects, 19 projects were capitalised with US$28 billion.

Many foreign investors have expressed keen interest in Vietnam’s investment environment as labour costs and land rents, which are much lower than in neighbouring countries in the region. Economists, however, warn that foreign investors are simply focused on making a huge profit for themselves.