The Vietnam Bond Market Association (VBMA), the first of its kind in Vietnam created to boost the bonds market and promote debt instruments, will hold an opening ceremony in Hanoi.

On 24/9/2009, Hanoi Stock Exchange is launching the Government bond trading system (Electronic Bond trading system – EBT) with characteristics addressing some drawbacks of current system.

Vietnam’s corporate earnings may expand by about 20 percent next year, helping to sustain Asia’s best-performing stock market over the past six months, according to Manulife Vietnam Fund Management.

The second stimulus package is not aimed at resolving all issues faced by the Vietnamese economy, but helping reduce difficulties for enterprises and ongoing projects as well as creating jobs to ensure labourers’ livelihoods.

In a just-released statement, the auditing, taxation and advisory group of services firms says that “whilst the propensity and capacity of foreign investors to do deals in emerging markets is generally down…, we still see attractive opportunities in Vietnam. Sectors that are attracting attention are fast moving consumer goods, media and entertainment, telecoms, financial services, infrastructure and real estate.”

Three major questions remain unanswered since the Government’s second stimulus package was announced earlier this month. They are: How much will it total? From where will the money to finance it be drawn? And how will the subsidised loans it provides be managed?

Two projects have been suggested for tax exemption and reduction. Under the project 1, the tax exemption for five months will be applied to the different kinds of income. Meanwhile, the VND 100,000 tax reduction per month will be applied in the next seven months to the people who have income from salaries and wages and income from business activities.

The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) convened a conference in Hanoi on April 9 on the implementation of Decision No.443 of the Prime Minister on interest rate support for VND medium and long-term loans for the business and productive corporate and individual borrowers. The conference was attended by Senior Deputy Governor Tran Minh Tuan, Deputy Governor Nguyen Dong Tien, Deputy Governor Nguyen Toan Thang and several SBV departmental directors and senior leaders of the Vietnam Development Bank and representatives of credit institutions.

The Head of Research under the Hanoi Socio-Economic Development Research Institute Nguyen Minh Phong told the Vietnam News Agency that Vietnam’s economy has shown positive signs of potentially stronger growth in the second half of the year. Former State Bank of Vietnam Governor Le Duc Thuy said in a recent interview with the online newspaper VnExpress that the downturn had reached the bottom in the first quarter, and expects that the economy will start to improve in the near future.

As soon as the first quarter of the year finished, economists expressed their optimism that the national economy would recover this year. Dr Le Dang Doanh, senior economist, talked about this.