The International Monetary Fund’s Chief Economist Raghuram Rajan said at a Sept. 14 news conference in Singapore that Vietnam “was considered by many to be the `emerging China,’ owing to its “relatively strong rates of growth.”  

In IMF’s website, it forecast for Vietnam a  7.8 percent growth this year, the fastest of any developing Southeast Asian economy while predicting China will grow 10 percent this year.

Standard & Poor’s this month raised Vietnam’s credit rating to two levels below investment grade, citing the nation’s economic growth potential and commitment to market- oriented policies.

Some Major Foreign investments ( also refer to article on UAE investment in Vietnam):-

Intel, the world’s biggest chipmaker, said this year it would invest as much as $605 million in a semiconductor test and assembly plant in the Ho Chi Minh City area, the biggest investment in Vietnam by a U.S. company.

Ford, the second-biggest U.S. carmaker by sales, has invested $100 million in an assembly plant in the Hanoi area in the past decade.

Vietnam”s Stock Exchange And Stock market:

Stock Exchange:

The stock exchange, the six-year-old Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center, lists 49 stocks with a market value of US$3.1 billion, according to Vietcombank Securities Co. Neighboring Thailand has 485 listings with a value of $132.3 billion.

An average of just $6.6 million worth of Vietnamese shares traded daily in the past three months, compared with $314 million in Thailand and $3.2 billion in Hong Kong, Bloomberg data show.

The Vietnam Stock Index has surged 66 percent this year in dollar terms, the most of 413 Asian indexes tracked by Bloomberg.

Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint-Stock Bank, known as Sacombank, in July became the first lender to trade on the stock exchange, raising the market’s value by 50 percent.

Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam will sell shares next year, followed by Mekong Delta Housing Bank, according to Tran Dac Sinh, director of the Trading Center.

History of Vietnam’s stock market:

The stock market started in July 2000 with just two listed companies and a total value of VND270 billion ($16.8 million).

By contrast with Vietnam, China has 1,381 listed companies in two markets, with a value of $650 billion.

New listings

• Overseas investors are restricted to a 49 percent stake in companies listed on the Ho Chi Minh City bourse and a 30 percent holding in Sacombank;
• investors seeking Vietnamese stocks must do so through a securities company registered domestically and must have local currency bank accounts;
• One avenue for foreign investors is through Vietnam funds incorporated outside the country, such as the $193 million Vietnam Growth Fund, which is based in the Cayman Islands, and the $96 million Vietnam Dragon Fund, based in Bermuda. Both are managed by Ho Chi Minh City-based Dragon Capital Management Ltd.
• The number of targets on Vietnam’s exchange is picking up as the government sells shares in state-controlled companies like Bank for Foreign Trade and Mekong Delta Housing Bank, companies including Electricity of Vietnam and Vietnam Post & Telecommunications Corp. will sell shares by 2010,
• Vietnam in the next four years plans to increase the value of its stock market to between 20 percent and 30 percent of gross domestic product from 6 percent, Tran from the Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center said in August.

Source: Bloomberg

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