Việt Nam News

In the first eight months of the year Việt Nam attracted foreign investment worth more than US$23.36 billion, a year-on-year increase of 45.1 per cent.

According to Government Decree 94/2017/NĐ-CP, to come into effect on October 1 this year, 20 items will be traded solely by public entities with clear directions from the Prime Minister’s Office.

At its third session the 14th National Assembly passed a resolution to trial various policies on bad debt settlement and the handling of secured assets for bad debts of credit institutions, branches of foreign banks and State-owned organisations to speed up the settlement of bad debts, which are acting as speed bumps in the banking sector’s development.

From mid-March Sacombank has been offering certificates of deposit (CDs) denominated in đồng to individuals and companies.

In the first four months of the year, the trade deficit was at quite high at around US$2.8 billion.

Farmers need to be rescued again as prices of yet another item collapse        

Market observers said in the first two months of the year the Government successfully issued bonds worth VNĐ54.11 trillion ($2.38 billion) for terms of five to 10 years.

Although Vietnamese apparel company movement toward the stock market is an inevitable trend in a market economy, only 30 businesses of the sector’s total of 6,000 have listed so far.

The Government has instructed the Ministry of Finance to consider changes to special consumption taxes on imported pick-up trucks to level the field for cars.

The Prime Minister recently ratified a project to stimulate non-cash transactions in 2016-20 with a view to reducing the cash transactions rate to under 10 per cent.

Last year the VPBank-owned FE Credit-Consumer Finance Services added 2.7 million accounts to take its total number of customers to 3.3 million.

The Government has approved a plan to build three special economic zones (SEZs) to spearhead the country’s growth and exploit local advantages to impel growth there.

One of the most important purposes of the equitisation of State-owned enterprises is to improve their management, and thus their performance.

Recently the State Bank of Việt Nam told credit institutions to restrict loans to real estate projects to reduce risks and credit concentration in a single sector.

On August 26 the southern province of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu issued for the first time municipal bonds worth VNĐ500 billion (US$4.44 million) to raise capital for infrastructure projects. The money will be used for building the Phước Hòa-Cái Mép Road, the Hồ Sông Ray inland canal system, and the Vũng Tàu Polyclinic.

For Sacombank Securities Company (SBS), merging with another brokerage is a fait accompli: its accumulated losses exceed its capital.

Over a month after the State Bank of Việt Nam called on banks to cut interest rates on loans, particularly to businesses, some banks - including joint stock lenders - have reduced their rates by 0.5-1 per cent.

On May 10 the Việt Nam Competition Authority warned that the import tax on crude and refined edible oils, reduced from 3 per cent this month to 2 per cent, would be scrapped altogether in May 2017.