Vietnam to set up national devt bank in 1st half '03
HANOI - Vietnam's Ministry of Finance, or MOF, is planning to set up a new state-owned bank -
the National Development Bank - in the first half of this year, instead of an export-import bank, or Eximbank, as
it said previously, a ministry official said Monday.
The MOF hopes it can submit its plan for establishing the future NDB to the government in the first quarter of this
year, the official said.
"We need to establish the new bank which will be capable of creating sufficient support for the country's
development investment efforts, including boosting imports and exports," he said, noting that "(establishing) an
Eximbank isn't enough for the task."
According to the MOF's plan, the NDB will be set up by
merging the two existing state-run funds - the Development
Assistance Fund, or DAF, and the Export Assistance Fund,
or EAF.
"We haven't finalized details like operational capital of the
new bank," he added.
According to the Ministry of Planning & Investment's
Investment newspaper, published Monday, the future NDB
will have a registered capital of 10 trillion dong
($1=VND15,385), double the size of the DAF which has a
registered capital of VND5 trillion.
The MOF official said the future NDB will focus on assisting
Vietnamese producers and exporters, and acting as a guarantor for traders.
Vietnam recorded $16.5 billion of exports last year and aims for an 8% growth this year.
Dow Jones Newswires - January 20, 2003.
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