Co-Organized by:

Socialist Republic of Vietnam Ministry of Finance

The Ministry of Finance and EuroEvents successfully hosted the Viet Nam Finance and Capital Markets 2008 conference in Ha Noi on January 23-34 to mark the first anniversary of Vietnam's WTO accession. Over 600 delegates gathered in the rather chilly weather of Ha Noi to discuss some 'hot' issues in Vietnam.

The event was officially opened by the Finance Minister, Mr. Vu Van Ninh, who stressed on his opening speech the strong commitment of continuing market reforms and the improving of market infrastructure of Vietnam to make it more attractive to investors.

Mr. Martin Rama, Acting Country Director of The World Bank chaired the opening panel discussion in which Mr. Ayumi Konishi, Country Director of Asian Development Bank, Mr. Sin Foong Wong, Country Manager of IFC, Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Canh, Director of ICD, SSC and Madame Le Thi Bang Tam, former vice minister of finance and chairwoman of SCIC, gave their reviews of the success of the country's WTO achievements and shared their views on the outlook in the coming years. Madame Tam, who was involved in the policy making during the WTO negotiations, drew a comparison of her expectations (before WTO) and what she sees one year after WTO, she also outlined her observations on the impact of WTO to SOEs.

    

Another focus of the first day of the conference was the Debt Capital Markets of Vietnam. All the speakers feel that the current scale of Vietnam's debt market is relatively small which present huge opportunity for growth. Mr. Brad Levitt, global head of capital markets of Standard Chartered Bank and Mr. Henri Foch, Head of Fixed Income, Asia ex-Japan of BNP Paribas shared their views on the development of this up and coming market. Mr. Mark Adams, Managing Director, Asia Pacific Head of DCM of BNP Paribas, Mr. Madhur Mehta, Managing Director of Debt Capital Markets of Standard Chartered Bank joined the panel discussion with Noritaka Akamatsu, Regional Advisor of the World Bank and Mr. Truong Hung Long, Deputy Director General of the Ministry of Finance in which the various issues of the Debt Capital Markets in Vietnam were discussed. Mr. Long highlighted the government's commitment to boost the bond markets especially the corporate bond markets and explained how this can be achieved via policy and legal framework changes. The issues of pipelines, pricing, legal framework etc. were also discussed. The discussion was followed by the Vietnam Bond Market Forum (VNBF) session to talk about the trading infrastructure to enable a more efficient trading environment in which Mr. Tran Van Dzung, Director at HaSTC outlined the government's plan in his introductory speech. Mr. Bong Arjonillo (Citigroup), Dan Svensson (Dragon Capital) and Ms. Pham Phuong Lan (BIDV) shared the practical trading issues and explained how VNBF is driving the improvement of the market (such as trading ethics, standards etc.) through industry collaboration and education.

Mr. Phung Khac Ke, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam started the afternoon session and in his keynote speech, he talked about the latest in banking reform in Vietnam and why this is important in order to make the banks more competitive to meet the challenges of the market opening up as laid down by the WTO commitments.

Mr. James Ahn, Partner of Mckinsey and Mr. Han Ngoc Vu, CEO of Vietnam International Bank talked about the changing faces of the Vietnam Banking Industry as well as the changing behavior of the modern customers. Mr. Ahn shared the key findings of Mckinsey's recent survey on the Vietnam Banking industry and Mr. Vu outlined the various stages of the development of Vietnam Banking industry and shared the latest development of Vietnam International Bank.

    

Ms. Chistine Lie, Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Ms. Jane Zhu, London Stock Exchange and Mr. Lawrence Wong, Singapore Stock Exchange joined Mr. Nguyen Doan Hung, Vice Chairman of SSC and BOD Chairman of HoSE to discuss the latest listing issues, including overseas IPO, as well as their cooperation with the Vietnam exchanges. The successful IPOs cases in the overseas exchanges were discussed.

The first day drew to a close with Mr. Nitin Jaiswal from Bloomberg, Mr. Frederick Burke from Baker & McKenzie and Mr. Rupert Chamberlain from KPMG outlining their roles, as professional services providers and financial intermediaries, in assisting and shaping the growth of the capital markets. It was highlighted that with the rapid development of the market and continuously changing legal framework, professional services plays a key part to bridge Vietnam and international practices. Mr. Jaiswal gave a comprehensive overview of how investors can get information about Vietnam through their special Vietnam page on Bloomberg.

The second day started with Mr. Vu Bang, Chairman of State Securities Commission to talk about the capital markets reform and the roadmap. It was followed by an interactive discussion of the OTC Market in which Mr. Nguyen Viet Ha, CEO of Mekong Securities, Mr. Nguyen The Tho, Director of Securities Issuance Department of State Securities Commission, Mr. Pham Quang Huy, Deputy General Director, BVSC and Mr. Tran Van Dzung, Director of HaSTC discussed the uniqueness of the Vietnam OTC markets and the latest changes in the policies. Mr. Dzung and Mr. Tho gave an outline of the new OTC Market system to be open in HaSTC.

Mr. Kenneth Kwan of Standard Chartered Bank gave a short presentation on Asset Securitization before Ms. Duong Thi Phuong, Deputy Director General, Department of Securities Surveillance and Compliance of the State Securities Commission made a presentation on anti-crisis and market surveillance.

The event drew to a close with a lively discussion on the Investment Opportunities in Vietnam panel discussion in which Mr. Alain Cany, Chairman of EuroCham, Mr. Louis Nguyen, CEO, Anpha Capital and Mr. Tran Le Khanh, Investment Director and Fund Manager of Prudential Vietnam Fund Management. The panel was chaired by Mr. Frederick Burke of Baker & McKenzie. All the panelists express optimism of the future of Vietnam and agree that with an sensible and professional selection of investment opportunities, Vietnam remain one of the most dynamic and attractive investment destinations in Asia.

The event provided the ideal platform for interactions and exchanging ideas, learning, networking and debate. Delegates actively participated during the panel discussion sessions and took the opportunities to network with their peers during coffee breaks and lunch breaks. The exhibition showcases outside this room proved to be very popular.