Participant pose for a group photo at the 11th Asia-Pacific Conference in 2019 held yesterday at HCM City’s Tôn Đức Thắng University. — VNS Photo Bồ Xuân Hiệp

HCM CITY — The financial industry in Việt Nam should build databases on businesses and economic indices to facilitate academic research and participation in the global financial market, speakers said at an international conference held yesterday in HCM City.

More than 300 educators, researchers and practitioners are taking part in the three-day 11th Asia-Pacific Conference 2019 to discuss global financial issues in the region.

Dr Võ Văn Lai, lecturer at Tôn Đức Thắng University, said that comprehensive databases on businesses and economic indices were badly needed for financial research purposes.

“Financial researchers in Việt Nam need to attend more financial seminars and conferences, and participate in peer review and editorial work for international journals,” he added.

Held in Việt Nam for the first time, the conference aims to connect Vietnamese researchers and academics with their counterparts from prestigious universities around the world. 

“Such international conferences should be promoted in the country with the participation of researchers from leading universities from the region and the world,” Lai said.

He noted that Tôn Đức Thắng University had introduced its own database on businesses and economic indices in Việt Nam for research purposes for universities worldwide. 

The event, which discussed the latest developments in financial technology (fintech) and electronic money (bitcoin), among other issues, also promotes cooperation among universities as well as connections between businesses and universities.

Lê Vinh Danh, president of Tôn Đức Thắng University, the conference co-chair, said: “More than 130 reports from scholars worldwide are being presented, making it one of the two biggest conferences in the Asia-Pacific region for the Financial Management Association International (FMA) in the past decade.” 

Gordon Phillips, a professor from Dartmouth College in the US, and a leading expert in financial management, delivered the keynote speech at the event, focusing on equity issuance, capital structure and bankruptcy issues.

Other participants included leading international scientists and experts such as Prof Rajesh Narayanan from Louisiana State University in the US and Prof Andrei Simonov from Michigan State University in the US, among others.

Academic recruitment 

As part of the conference, about 200 experts from international universities arrived in Việt Nam prior to the event to recruit lecturers and professors.

They included Dongguk University (South Korea), Nanhua University (Taiwan), Sunway University (Malaysia), Sungkyunkwan University (South Korea), Saxion University (the Netherlands), Tomas Bata University and Prague University of Economics (Czech Republic), and the Chinese Culture University (Taiwan).

A number of Vietnamese and foreign graduate students registered for the event to have exchanges with leading experts in the field, as well as to seek opportunities to work at top universities at home and abroad.

This is the first time that recruitment activities have been included in the regional conference programme.

The conference is one of FMA’s annual conferences held in regional countries that focus on Asia-Pacific issues as well as global financial problems.

Founded in 1970 in the US, FMA is a leading international organisation for financial management. 

Its mission is to promote research in financial management through the exchange of scientific research results and practical experiences around the world.

FMA organises annual meetings, conferences and other academic activities to connect educators, researchers and practitioners around the world to exchange knowledge and discuss issues that arise in the financial sector. — VNS