Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has called for fast and sustainable development of a commercial bank system to catch up with the world trend.
The Government leader made the call at a January 11 banking conference in Hanoi, the day Vietnam officially became the 150th member of the Word Trade Organization.
He appreciated the banking system's contributions to the country's dynamic economic growth last year, which stood at almost 8.2 per cent despite numerous difficulties such as world price fluctuations, natural calamities and epidemics.
"The banking industry has managed to develop the monetary market and expanded to a number of new banks, contributing to stabilizing exchange rates and curbing the inflation pace below the economic growth rate," said the PM.
He praised commercial banks for making profitable operations and upgrading their management capacity to international standards and practices.
For 2007, the PM called on commercial banks to increase the competitive edge, control risks, open new services and list their shares on the stock market floor to strengthen their financial portfolios in an effort to compete with international rivals in the opening era.
He also urged the State Bank to aid the Government in national monetary policies on exchange rates, banking interest and inflation control in order to stabilize the monetary market.
Efforts should be made to materialize the strategy on banking development in line with WTO commitments, thus contributing to the national industrialization and modernization, said the Government leader.
Recently, the PM asked four state-owned banks to sell stake this year, when the country will allow foreign rival banks to offer full services in Vietnam as of April 1 under its WTO membership commitments. (Financial Times, People, VNA)
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