Thread: Latest news on the Dong!

Sorry if already posted

Fake polymer bills found in Hanoi

Source: 08/Nov/2006 Ha Noi Moi page 3

Hanoi police reported arresting Trieu Van Quan born for carrying fake 500,000 dong polymer bills to a total value of 100 million dong on November 6 in Thanh Xuan Dist of Hanoi.
Initial investigations revealed that an organised crime ring from China was bringing in the forgeries to Vietnam.. Quan admitted that he had received the notes from a Chinese man in the Lung Liu valley of China and taken the money to another man in the Thanh Xuan district of Hanoi. Quan said he would have earned four million dong if he had managed it.
Previously, local police had arrested another fake money transportation gang with 50 million dongs worth of fake polymer banknotes.

....orrR, Dicky'll have Hanoi on his next hop...

Originally Posted by SpongeDinars

Sorry if already posted

Fake polymer bills found in Hanoi

Source: 08/Nov/2006 Ha Noi Moi page 3

Hanoi police reported arresting Trieu Van Quan born for carrying fake 500,000 dong polymer bills to a total value of 100 million dong on November 6 in Thanh Xuan Dist of Hanoi.
Initial investigations revealed that an organised crime ring from China was bringing in the forgeries to Vietnam.. Quan admitted that he had received the notes from a Chinese man in the Lung Liu valley of China and taken the money to another man in the Thanh Xuan district of Hanoi. Quan said he would have earned four million dong if he had managed it.
Previously, local police had arrested another fake money transportation gang with 50 million dongs worth of fake polymer banknotes.

ok so where exactly are you suppose to check ( website ) for the security feartues on the various notes?

I have the link but somehow it's not working..

It is very clear that he is highly underpaid.

WTO lauds India, Vietnam for trade growth
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has lauded India and Vietnam for their trade performance in a preliminary assessment of global trade last year and prospects for this year.

The report, released in Geneva Thursday, stated that "since 1995, the exports and imports of these two countries have expanded faster than Asia's trade and their share in world merchandise exports increased markedly."

They reported growth of 20 to 35 percent in 2006, it said.

Vietnam’s merchandise imports, which amounted to US$44 billion in 2006 and accounted for a 0.5 percent global share, have put the country in the 30 leading importers in this category.

The dollar value of world merchandise exports increased by 15 per cent to $11.76 trillion in 2006 and commercial services exports were up by an estimated 11 per cent to $2.71 trillion. Since 2003, commercial services exports expanded less rapidly each year than merchandise trade.

In volume terms, the 8 per cent expansion in merchandise trade in 2006 was the second highest since 2000.

With global economic growth forecast at around 3 per cent this year, merchandise trade growth could slow to about 6 per cent.

Developing countries' share of world merchandise exports reached an all-time high of 36 per cent last year and the 0.9 per cent share for least-developed countries was also a record, the highest level since 1980.

“The strong performance of 2006 is welcome, particularly the gains made by developing and least-developed countries,” WTO Director General Pascal Lamy said, adding “this has to be consolidated” through a successful conclusion of the Doha Round.

Source: WTO

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Dong Derivatives May Double; Investors Enter Vietnam (Update3)
By Ron Harui and Oliver Biggadike
April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Vietnam's currency is starting to capture the attention of derivatives traders as Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economy accelerates.
DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. have begun offshore trading in contracts tied to the future value of the currency, the dong. The $50 million of Vietnamese contracts that trade monthly may double in a year, Standard Chartered Plc estimates. More than $1 billion of Chinese yuan forwards change hands daily in an overseas market that didn't exist 15 years ago, according to HSBC Holdings Plc.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung this year loosened currency controls and announced plans to increase sales of state-owned assets. The new currency market gives investors more opportunities to bet on an economy that expanded at a 7.7 percent annual rate in the first quarter and may grow 8.3 percent this year, according to the Asian Development Bank.
``You can't imagine the amount of money going into Vietnam,'' said Peter Soh, head of foreign exchange in Singapore at DBS, Southeast Asia's biggest bank. ``Everyone thinks Vietnam will follow China's path. The dong must strengthen.''
Vietnam's benchmark stock index is up 24 percent so far in 2007, after gaining 145 percent in 2006, the world's best performance. The economy is the fastest among the six biggest in Southeast Asia.
Investors need derivatives to trade the currency because the government only allows them to buy dong for specific purposes, such as investing in stocks or building factories. The contracts are settled in dollars.
Opening Up
``It's very positive,'' and is in line with government goals of having the currency trade overseas, State Bank of Vietnam Deputy Governor Phung Khac Ke said in an interview in Hanoi. ``It shows international investors are more and more interested in Vietnam.''
The central bank's support coincides with Dung's plans to open the economy. Dung, 57, became prime minister in June and last week approved a $1 billion sale of government bonds, the largest ever. The Communist Party this year told three of the four biggest state banks to prepare for initial public offerings.
Vietnam this year ended a decade-long policy of ``managed devaluation'' that caused the dong to weaken 30 percent. The currency gained 0.7 percent between Nov. 22 and Feb. 21. It has since fallen 0.4 percent to 16,043 per dollar as regulators curbed borrowing for stock market investment.
Three-month non-deliverable forward contracts trade at 16,112.5 to the dollar, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The prices take into account higher interest rates in Vietnam as well as the expectations among traders for dong movements.
`Testing the Water'
The central bank will ``keep the dong stable, in a flexible manner, so that it can help our exports,'' Phung said.
Traders may be ``turned off'' by the central bank's support for gradual depreciation, said Sean Callow, senior currency strategist in Singapore at Sydney-based Westpac Banking Corp. State controls may limit swings in the currency and opportunities to profit.
Investors are still ``testing the water'' in Vietnam, said Amy Auster, head of international economics at Melbourne-based ANZ Bank, which owns stakes in two Vietnamese banks.
Derivatives are financial instruments derived from stocks, bonds, loans, currencies and commodities, or linked to specific events like changes in the weather or interest rates.
Stronger Dong
Trading in the futures may increase once banks introduce a standardized contract for the dong by early June, DBS said in an e-mail. Between 15 and 20 banks in Singapore and five brokers may be interested in the market, DBS said. The central bank doubled the daily limit on dong moves against the dollar to 0.5 percent this year.
``Vietnam is the next market in Asia to look at,'' said Greg Clinton, global head of interest rate derivatives in Singapore at Standard Chartered, a London-based bank that makes two-thirds of its profit in Asia. ``It's booming but it has currency restrictions, and that gives rise to a non-deliverable market.''
Forwards are agreements to buy assets at a later specified date. A non-deliverable forward is typically settled in dollars and involves no physical exchange of other currencies.
Strategists at Standard Chartered and Paris-based BNP Paribas say the currency's retreat is an opportunity to buy. BNP Paribas predicts the currency will gain 1.5 percent by the end of the year to 15,800. Standard Chartered forecasts 15,900.
Foreign Investment
The value of specialized Vietnam equity funds has swelled to about $5 billion, according to John Shrimpton, co-founder of Ho Chi Minh City-based Dragon Capital, Vietnam's biggest fund manager, with $2 billion in assets.
Hanoi-based Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, the second- largest lender, probably will go public this year and have a market value of about $3.5 billion, the biggest in the nation, said Kevin Snowball, a director of PXP Vietnam Asset Management Ltd. in Ho Chi Minh City. He called his valuation ``speculative.''
Pledges of foreign investment, which rose 49 percent to $10.2 billion last year, are gaining after Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization in January. Intel Corp. of Santa Clara, California, the world's biggest maker of computer chips, plans to spend $1 billion to build a plant in Vietnam. Osaka-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the world's biggest consumer electronics maker, opened two factories in the nation this month.
Exports, Remittances
``It's looking like an enormous volume of investment is destined for the country,'' Shrimpton said. ``There are numbers being bandied around of even $30 billion of approved foreign direct investment being possible for this year.''
Rising exports and remittances by more than 3 million overseas Vietnamese will boost the currency, said Joseph Tan, a Singapore-based economist at Standard Chartered. Foreign exchange reserves climbed to $11.5 billion last year. The government predicts growth of 8.5 percent this year, up from 8.2 percent in 2006.
``Everything is arguing for a stronger currency,'' said Tan. ``It will prove very, very challenging for the central bank if they want to continue to maintain a depreciation.''

Originally Posted by Jola

By Oliver Biggadike
April 23 (Bloomberg) - The dong must strengthen.''
[/B]

Even Biggadike wants a Stronger Dong!!

http://digitalmedia.worldbank.org/sl...lideshow_id=89

Originally Posted by Adster

http://digitalmedia.worldbank.org/sl...lideshow_id=89

Adster...

Link not working.. looks like it truncated..