Viet Delegation Visits Wall Street to See How U.S. Markets Work

Vietnam has moved another step closer to launching its first stock exchange with visits by a delegation of Vietnamese officials to Wall Street.

While in the United States, the delegation, composed of ministers with the State Finance and Monetary Council and a senior adviser to the prime minister, visited the New York and Pacific stock exchanges.

Last week’s visits, which included meetings with bankers and entrepreneurs, come just months after President Clinton lifted the U.S. trade embargo on Hanoi.

Vietnam, a poor but rapidly growing nation of 70 million, is one of the few Asian countries that still does not have a stock market running. By some accounts, the exchange will not be in operation until late 1995.

The U.S. visit was designed to give the Vietnamese officials a look at American financial markets at work as well as an opportunity to meet with potential capital market investors, said Nguyen Theiu, secretary general of the Vietnam State Finance and Monetary Council.

Vietnam has yet to pick a model or set a date for trade to begin.

Nonetheless, Theiu said the government of Vietnam remains committed to creating an exchange.

The proposed stock exchange would trade in shares of privatized state trading corporations and bonds issued by the central bank, local authorities and eventually private firms.

“Government bonds is all we now have for exchange,” he said. “But in the near future we can issue corporate bonds and corporate stocks in a pilot period.”

This “pilot period” would preface the opening of the actual exchange, and would consist only of stocks and bonds issued with the government’s approval, Theiu said, adding that non-Vietnamese investment funds and brokerage houses are likely to be allowed to invest during this period.