Viet Nam stocks are an attraction to foreign investors who have opened 16,000 securities trading accounts in the country so far.— Photo talkvietnam.com

HA NOI (Biz Hub) – The State Securities Commission is building common set of indicators for stock exchanges in both Ha Noi and HCM City as the first step towards merging two exchanges next year.

Commission Chairman Vu Bang said this during the Viet Nam Investment Forum in HCM City on June 19, in which domestic and international economists and investors participated.

The chairman told local media that the commission has been building a scheme for the merger. They would classify current stocks into sectors, and they would be appropriated with international practices, he added.

According to Bang, after the merger, it was important to ensure the market worked smoothly via automated systems with active trading, payment and a securities depository and more importantly, many transactions done at the same time.

He said that the payment then would be done through the State Bank of Vietnam instead of the current commercial banks like now.

The chairman told Thoi bao Kinh te Sai Gon (Saigon Economic Times) newspaper that they were collecting comments from relevant agencies for the scheme which they would submit it to the government. After government approval, there should be a route for implementing it so that the change would not cause any shock and disrupt market stability.

While Bang did not refer to the location of the new headquarters for the merged exchange, he mentioned that bigger issues were technology, market classification model, transactions standards and long-term plans.

According to the local media, Marc Faber, an international financial strategist and one of the key speakers at the forum, expressed his optimism about the local economy in general and the stock market in the long term, in particular.

Marc Faber and other investors did not think the current East Sea tensions between Viet Nam and China could be an obstacle for Viet Nam 's economy in the long term. They thought foreign investors would continue to pour their capital into Viet Nam if the local government continued its reforms.

According to the forum, foreign investors have opened 16,000 securities trading accounts in Viet Nam in the mean time.—VNS