Vietnamese President visits New York Stock Exchange

09:57' 20/06/2007 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet paid a visit to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at 11am, June 19 (New York time) and witnessed the signing of a cooperation agreement between the HCM City Securities Trading Centre and the NYSE. President Triet writes some lines in the visitor’s book of the NYSE (Photo: AP) New York is the first place that Mr Triet came to in his five-day visit to the US. This city is famous with the NYSE and the NASDAQ stock exchanges. New York is considered the capital of the world financial market and the NYSE is the heart of that capital. Two years ago, during his official visit to the US in June 2005, Prime Minister Phan Van Khai also paid a visit to the NYSE. Also on June 19, representatives of the Citigroup, led by its Chairman Chuck Prince, came to greet President Triet. During the meeting with the Vietnamese President, the Citigroup Chairman expressed his admiration to Vietnam’s outstanding development. He said that along with the development of the Vietnamese economy, the country’s investment environment is very potential and Citigroup wants to participate in various fields of the Vietnamese economy. After the meeting, under Mr Triet’s witness, Citigroup signed loan agreements worth more than US$400 million with the Electricity of Vietnam (EVN) group, the Vietnam Shipping Lines Corporation (Vinalines), and the Vietnam Coal and Mineral Group (Vinacomin). Specifically, EVN will borrow capital from Citigroup to develop business. This is a new development in banking and finance cooperation between Citi and EVN. The fields of cooperation include electric and telecom charge payment service through bank, telecom services, forex trading and capital management, risk management, deposit investment and other payment services. Meanwhile, Vinacomin selected Citigroup as the consulter for its first bond issuance in Vietnam. For Vinalines, the loan from Citigroup will be used to develop its flotillas and port projects. Under its development plan from now to 2010, Vinalines will double its vessels and develop large-scale seaports so it needs huge sources of capital for those projects. According to Jeffrey Shafer, Vice Chairman of the Citigroup, who is in charge of global banking services, the Vietnamese economy is growing very rapidly and is integrating into the world market. Vietnamese companies, thus, will seek to increase foreign capital and foreign financial sources to raise their competitiveness. Citigroup is willing to assist Vietnamese companies in this significant period of development. Also on June 19 morning, President Triet met with the representatives of the Ford Foundation and overseas Vietnamese in Canada. At the same time, the Vietnam – US business forum was held in New York. In the afternoon of June 19, Mr Triet visited the headquarters of the American textile-garments group, met with the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and US financial investors. American groups hail Vietnamese President's visit The Washington Post, the US's major newspaper, on June 19 ran a half-page letter by 10 American groups, describing the visit as a milestone to further deepen Vietnam-US ties. The letter said that exports from the US to Vietnam increased by 300 percent since the two countries signed the Bilateral Trade Agreement in 2000. Joining the World Trade Organisation earlier this year, Vietnam has became a full partner in the world business community. In their letter, the American businessmen praised Vietnam's economic reform, that turn the country one of fastest growing economies and potential markets in the world. Also on the June 19 issue, Washington Post covered President Triet's photo and flags of Vietnam and the US. During the visit to the US by President Triet from June 19-23, the CNN everyday repeatedly broadcast a video clip on "Vietnam: A New Horizon", highlighting achievements of the "Doi moi" (Renovation) process in Vietnam over the past 20 years in all fields. Viet Nam Net