Foreign investors have invested just over US$1 billion of foreign indirect investment capital (FII) into Vietnam so far, said Vo Tri Thanh, head of the International Economic Integration Department, under the Central Economic Management Research Institute.
This is the exact figure, which is one fourth of the figure released by the World Bank earlier this month.
Thanh said foreign investors had pumped about US$700 million into Vietnam’s stock market as of October 2006 and US$1 billion by the end of last year.
It can be understood that foreigners’ real investment was US$1 billion. However, the money expanded to US$4 billion as prices of securities increased, he said.
Regarding the development of the stock market, Thanh said now is not the time to take strict measures controlling money inflows to the market, but authorities need to improve transparency and information about the market.
Thanh said Vietnam’s stock market will continue to develop muscularly in the coming time. However, the market will grow step by step, not as feverishly as recently.
The official statistics showed that by the end of 2006, foreign investors opened about 1,700 trading accounts in Vietnam and held 25-30 per cent of total shares in listed markets. They include some big names such as JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup.
The country’s market capitalization has increased significantly, from less than US$0.5 billion in December 2005 to US$13.8 billion at the end of 2006 (accounting for 22.7 per cent of GDP), and to US$24.4 billion now.
At present, foreign investors have bought more than 45 per cent in 12 blue-chip stocks on Vietnam stock exchange, including AGF, BMP, BT6, CII, GIL, GMD, REE, SAM, TDH, TMS, TYA, VNM, and a 30 per cent stake ceiling in STB. (VietNamnet, Vietnam Economic Times)
Vietnamese
