Disbursement of the interest rate subsidy program by December 3, 2009 Friday, December 04, 2009

According to the express reports of credit institutions, the disbursement amount of the interest rate subsidy program of the whole banking industry by December 3, 2009 reached around VND 414,077.97 billion, decreased by VND 1,808.95 billion in comparison with the previous week (equivalent to 0.43%).

The details of disbursement amount classified by the groups of credit institutions and the borrowers are as follows:

1. The disbursement classified by groups of credit institutions: The group of state-owned commercial banks and the Central People’s Credit Fund have disbursed VND 276,876.78 billion, decreased by 2,456.62 billion in comparison with the previous week (equivalent to 0.88%); the group of joint-stock commercial banks, the group of joint-venture banks, foreign banks branches and wholly-owned foreign banks, and the group of financial companies have allocated about VND 108,472.85 billion (an increase by VND 630.94 billion, equivalent to 0.58%), VND 20,401.61 billion (an increase by VND 366.46 billion, equivalent to 1.83%), and VND 8,326.73 billion (a decrease by VND 349.73 billion, equivalent to 4.03%) for this program, respectively.

2. The disbursement classified by borrowers is as follows: The group of state-owned enterprises got VND 62,547.44 billion; non-state owned enterprises (including liability limited companies, joint-stock companies, private enterprises, foreign invested companies…) received VND 285,027.05 billion; and households got VND 66,503.61 billion from the program.

The State Bank of Vietnam

Date 04/12/2009

Launching of Smartlink – VNBC system Friday, December 04, 2009

The Smartlink Card Service Joint Stock Company (Smartlink) and the Vietnam Bank Card (VNBC) officially launched the Smartlink - VNBC card payment system and their cooperation to provide electronic payment services in Hanoi on December 3.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Ms. Duong Thu Huong, General Secretary of the Vietnam Banks Association, emphasized that the Smartlink – VNBC card payment system was an indispensable event following the successful launching of Banknetvn – Smartlink system, the two largest national card-switching systems. She added that it was in line with the roadmap of developing a non- cash payment system under the guidance of the Prime Minister. She added that this event also showed the efforts of individual institutions in the banking sector to contribute to modernization of the national economy.

Following the launching of this system, the card holders of three banks- Vietcombank, Techcombank and EAbank- can withdraw cash, check balances, print out account statement and internally transfer money via over 3,000 ATMs, accounting for 35% of the total number of ATMs of the entire market, since December 3, 2009.

According to the connection roadmap, the Smartlink and VNBC will complete the expansion of ATM connection for 10 commercial banks and then for the rest of member banks in the first 6 months of 2010. Moreover, the Smartlink and VNBC cooperate to provide electronic payment services via POS, Internet and mobile phones for the card holders and goods and service providers in the domestic market.

Diem Hang

Date 04/12/2009

SBV Governor meets with Ambassador of Russian Federation Friday, December 04, 2009

Governor Nguyen Van Giau of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had a meeting with the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Vietnam, Mr. A.G. Kovtun, in Hanoi on December 3.

Governor Nguyen Van Giau spoke highly of the relations of cooperation between the two countries over the past years. The Governor expressed his hope that the Russian Ambassador would make his best to accelerate an all-sided cooperation between the two countries, especially the exchange of information between the two central banks.

For his part, Ambassador A.G. Kovtun asserted that the Russian Government and investors have always been interested in the banking operations of Vietnam. The ambassador expressed his wish that the Vietnamese Government, especially the SBV, would facilitate Russian banks to operate in Vietnam.

Prior to the meeting, in order to implement agreements between the two sides, the SBV and the Central Bank of the Russian Federation held the 8th meeting of the Vietnam-Russia Working Group on inter-bank cooperation in Rostov-on-Don (Russian Federation). The two sides made specific recommendations with the aim of promoting the comprehensive development of cooperation between banks and enterprises of the two countries, hence contributing to the promotion of the bilateral trade. In addition, the two sides discussed cooperation in training experts in the economic – financial field and scientific research. Notably, the central banks of the two countries signed an agreement to revise the August 26, 1998 Convention on Settlement in External Economic Relations.

The two sides exchanged their views on the relations of cooperation between commercial banks of the two countries in such areas as corresponding relations , settlement, project financing, so on and so forth.

My Huong

Date 04/12/2009

Minimizing unnecessary imports, curbing trade deficit Friday, December 04, 2009

The PM on Thursday issued a document requiring competent agencies to tighten the import of unnecessary goods in order to curtail trade deficit. He also ordered an immediate prevention against unstable gold trading activities which can harm the national economy.

Drastic measures should be taken to promote export and reduce unnecessary imports

The Government chief entrusted the Ministry of Industry and Trade to work with competent agencies in boosting up export while issuing legal documents and adopting tariff measures to control the import of unnecessary commodities.

Reports released by the General Statistics Office show that the export turnover in November stood at around US $4.7 billion, down 6.5% compared to the previous one. For the past 11 months, the figure was estimated to be US $51.3 billion, dropping by 11.6% against the same period last year.

So far, the turnover of most imports for domestic consumption and production has fallen in comparison to 2008. However, the import excess over export was estimated to be US $1.97 billion in November and US $10.4 billion in the 11 months, equivalent to 20.3% of the total export turnover.

Stopping harmful gold trading activities

Also on November 03, PM Nguy?n T?n Dung asked the State Bank of Vi?t Nam (SBV) to tighten the State management over the gold trade, especially operations of the gold trading centers, in order to stop all activities which can cause destructive impacts on the national economy.

The SBV and other relevant bodies must review regulations on foreign exchange activities, so that these activities are conducted in line with laws. Any illegal activities will be strictly punished.

The PM also authorized the Ministry of Finance and the SBV to supervise, check and inspect operations of securities companies and fund managing companies in order to guarantee healthy trading activities on stock market.

(Source: chinhphu.vn)

Date 04/12/2009

SBV enhances supervision of credit operations of banks Thursday, December 03, 2009

The Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) issued Document No. 9484/NHNN-VP on December 2 to be sent to the state-owned commercial banks, the Joint-Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, the Vietnam Joint-Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade and the Vietnam Banks Association to strictly implement the latest SBV measures on the interest and exchange rates which were announced in Document No 552/TB-NHNN on November 25.

Accordingly, in order to stabilize the interest rates, commercial banks are required to apply VND mobilizing rates with the highest rate of below 10.5% p.a. If the mobilizing rate of any banks exceeds this level, the whole operations of such banks will be inspected by the Financial Supervision Agency.

My Huong

Date 03/12/2009