Vietnam bonds for foreigner

Vietnam bonds for foreigner

HANOI (Reuter): Vietnam said yesterday it would let foreign
residents and companies buy bonds and shares to be issued by
state-owned companies in what an economist said was a new form of
privatization.

Foreigners, foreign companies working in Vietnam and overseas
Vietnamese will be able to own the instruments, as well as
Vietnamese enterprises, according to a government decree
published in newspapers.

A government economist said the planned issue of shares in
state firms would amount to issuing new capital that would be
privately held, diluting ownership by the state.

"It's another form of equitization," he said, using one of the
terms the communist authorities employ as a euphemism for
privatization.

Efforts to privatize state companies as part of market reforms
introduced in 1986 have moved more slowly than expected and only
a handful have completed the process of transferring ownership to
shareholders, mostly employees.

Government bonds -- and later company shares -- are expected
to be tradable on Vietnam's first stock exchange, probably to be
launched in Ho Chi Minh City next year.