Addressing an international conference on regionalism and the modernisation of Vietnam, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said foreign strategic investors could raise their stakes in Vietnamese banks from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. Asia News Network was a coorganiser of the seminar.

The actual ceiling for foreign ownership of a Vietnamese bank is 30 per cent, but the government will consider applications from investors who want to raise their share beyond 15 per cent on a casebycase basis, he added.

Vietnam has been a rising Asian economic star, with its unprecedented growth since its government launched its Doi Moi reforms in 1986. Economic growth has been about 7.5 per cent in recent years, jumping to 8.2 per cent last year.

The fast-growing economy is now integrating with regional and global ones. Vietnam is proactive in various regional and international organisations, joining Asean in 1996, the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation forum in 1998 and the World Trade Organisation in January.

Planning and Investment Minister Vo Hong Phuc said Vietnam's goal was to have a "prosperous, wealthy nation and an equal, democratic and civilised society".

Vietnam aspires to be removed from the list of leastdeveloped countries by 2010, when it concludes its current 10-year plan, he added.

Phuc said Vietnam needed to maintain high economic growth, continue reform, broaden integration into the global economy, improve the economic and social infrastructure and combine industrialisation with modernisation.

Singaporean Industry Minister S Iswaran told the conference that Vietnam could be a driver of growth and economic integration in Southeast Asia.

Key factors are a youthful population of more than 80 million and a bright and hardworking labour force.

However, Iswaran said several challenges lay ahead for Asia as a whole and Vietnam in particular, because global economic competitiveness was intensifying, while security and stability remained a concern within certain pockets of Asia.

"Instability outside the region could also affect us," he said. "New security issues like terrorism, as well as healthcare risks like pandemics, also threaten to destabilise the region."

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

Ho Chi Minh City