by Huang Haimin Bui Minhlong     

    HANOI, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is taking concrete measures to develop its stock market in a rapid but sustainable manner, including supplying it with more blue-chips, and enhancing operation capacity of securities companies.

    In 2007, the country plans to list some 100 equitized state-owned enterprises, including big ones in such important fields as banking, insurance and aviation, in the stock market, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told local legislators recently.

    "This year, we will supply more high-quality shares to the stock market.. They are the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam and the Mekong Housing Development Bank (among the enterprises slated for equitization and listing in 2007)," Dung said, noting that "our stock market is developing well without any difficulties."

    The point is that the state should manage the market well, he stated. Therefore, Vietnam will intensify management, forecast and supervision over the operation of the stock market to ensure its sustainable, sound and rapid development of the stock market.

    To foster the bourse in a strong and sustainable manner, the State Securities Commission, the local bourse's watchdog, has mapped out four specific measures, including raising quality and quantity of stock demand and supply; enhancing operation capacity of intermediary organizations; restructuring the stock market; and perfecting legal frameworks, institutions and policies.

    To facilitate stock supply from now to 2010, Vietnam will accelerate the process of equitizing state-owned enterprises, especially big companies, corporations and commercial banks; convert more foreign-invested enterprises into joint stock companies so that they will then become listed ones; and strengthen capital mobilization in the form of bonds, especially municipal bonds and investment bonds.

    To develop stock demand, the country will focus on fostering institutional investors to ensure the bourse's stability, encourage professional investment institutions, including banks, securities companies, insurers and investment funds to participate in the local bourse, and build and publicize opening-up roadmaps for foreign investors partaking in the market in accordance to the country's Investment Law and its commitments to the World Trade Organization.

    Vietnam will also require intermediary entities like securities companies to raise capital, apply standard corporate governance, intensify application of information technology in stock transactions, link securities, finance, insurance and banking services to gradually form investment banks, and standardize their staff according to international practices.

    Vietnam will issue more guiding documents to better implement of its Securities Law, and revise regulations on taxes, fees and foreign exchanges.

    Regarding the bourse's restructure, the country will change the Ho Chi Minh City Securities Trading Center into the Stock Exchange which is slated for equitization in 2010; turn the Hanoi Securities Trading Center, currently a place for shares in equitized state-owned enterprises and shares held by the state in joint stock companies to be auctioned, and shares of unlisted joint stock firms to be traded, into a market for trading shares of small and medium enterprises; and develop a separate government bond market at the Hanoi Securities Trading Center.

    The commission predicted that total values of listed shares will represent nearly 30 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2007, and increase to 30-40 billion U.S. dollars, or 30-40 percent of the GDP, in 2010.

    Vietnam's bourse index, VN-Index, on March 12 hit a record high of 1,170.67 points since the local bourse opened in July 2000 with the starting index of 100. VN-Index closed at 1,066.04 points on Monday, up 26.41 points, or 2.54 percent, against the previous trading day.

    By the end of 2006, Vietnam had 193 companies having their shares either listed or registered for transactions at the two local securities trading centers with total value of nearly 221.2 trillion VND (13.8 billion U.S. dollars) or 22.7 percent of the country's GDP in 2006, the commission said, noting that in July 2000, it had only two kinds of listed shares with a total value of270 billion VND (nearly 16.9 million dollars).

    The commission's chairman Vu Bang told reporters recently that the robust development of the local bourse in recent years, especially early this year is partly attributed to "better performances of enterprises, especially large-scale ones, bigger foreign investment, higher economic growth, and speedier economic reform" in Vietnam.