The conference attracted about 700 Vietnamese and foreign delegates. Addressing the opening ceremony, Finance Minister Vu Van Ninh said: "To make progress in the economic development, the Vietnamese government always give priorities to reforming and developing the financial and capital market".

“In the time to come, the Finance Ministry in co-ordination with other governmental agencies to continue improving the legal frameworks, implementing WTO’s commitments, applying cautious and flexible finance management policies with a view to stabilising macroeconomic targets, creating stable social and political environment for investment and economic development,” Mr Ninh said.

The conference drew regional experts to gather together at the Vietnam Finance and Capital Markets Conference 2007 to discuss the latest issues of the fast growing capital markets in Vietnam.

At the conference, Mr. Klaus Rohland, World Bank Country Director; Mr. Sin Foong Wong, Country Manager of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia of International Finance Corporation (IFC] and Dr. Omkar Shrestha, Deputy Country Director, ADB Vietnam Resident Mission joined Vice Finance Minister Tran Xuan Ha to discuss on how Vietnam can attract more capital flow and the overview of the progress of the financial reform.

Mr. Vu Bang, Chairman, State Securities Commission examined the legal framework of the new Securities Law with Dr. Ulrike Maenner, Chief Technical Adviser, GTZ; Mr. Nguyen Hoang Anh, Partner, Johnson Stokes & Master; Mr. Trieu Quoc Viet, Financial Sector Specialist, the World Bank. All speakers highlighted the importance of the new law and how it has been shaping the development of the domestic capital markets and the fledgling stock market.

The benefits of Equalisation of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and the attractiveness of the equitised companies to the investors are discussed by Mr. Le Dao Nguyen of BIDV and Dr. Le Duc Tho of Vietinbank.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Thanh, Managing Director, REE Company showed with facts how the company’s performance has been improving after equitisation. Mr. Ngo Phuong Chi, Deputy Director, Bao Viet Securities Company outlined how they help the SOEs in their equitisation process. Mr. Le Song Lai, Executive Director, State Capital Investment Corporation looked at the issues from the management point of view as well as from being one of the biggest investors in the equitised companies.

The impacts of the banking and non-bank reforms definitely worth being mentioned and the panellists discuss how they affected their business strategy and how they are coping with the challenges and their plans in capitalising on the opportunities.

Mr. Han Ngoc Vu, CEO of the Vietnam Investment Bank looks at investment opportunities for foreign investors in investing in Vietnamese Commercial Joint Stock Banks.

An impressive array of speakers discussed the issues of the debt capital markets in Vietnam and brainstormed on how to make the markets more active. It started by a presentation from Mr. Jimmy Choi, Vice President of Deutsche Bank. The two panel discussions covered both the primary and secondary markets issues and highlighted how the industry is working together with the regulators in developing the debt capital market.

Source: Nhan Dan