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Government to sell $1.25 billion bonds to fund HCMC projects
The government will issue bonds worth VND22 trillion (US$1.25 billion) to fund two major projects in Ho Chi Minh City, Minister of Finance Vu Van Ninh told city officials Wednesday.
The Treasury would also lend the city VND3 trillion ($169 million) after its People’s Committee asked for financial support for the Hiep Phuoc Port and Industrial Zone in the outlying district of Nha Be and Thu Thiem, a new urban area in District 2, he said.
The projects would play an important role in attracting foreign investment in the years to come, he said.
As for the Thu Thiem project, People’s Committee Chairman Le Hoang Quan said, 60 percent of displaced residents have been paid compensation for their land and the government’s support would speed up the remaining site clearance and compensation tasks.
Ninh agreed to a city request to advance more than VND2 trillion ($113.6 million) from its bonus for exceeding last year’s revenue target to fund other ongoing and new projects.
Last year, the city’s revenues topped VND124 trillion, up 34.8 percent year on year.
But the tax and customs departments expect revenues to drop significantly this year because of tax breaks and deferment and the effects of the economic slowdown.
Bonds advance, dong falls
Bonds Thursday rose the most in two months after the central bank said it plans to leave its benchmark interest rate unchanged next month, having halved it to 7 percent since mid-October. The dong retreated.
“There were more buyers than sellers, probably because bond yields are expected to drop further as the central bank will maintain its key rate,” said Nghiem Ngoc Minh,
Hanoi-based head of the capital-management department at Bank for Agriculture & Rural Development, Vietnam’s biggest bank by assets.
The yield on the benchmark five-year note dropped 0.17 percent, the most since January 23, to 9.19 percent, according to a daily fixing price from about 10 banks compiled by Bloomberg. The rate had climbed to the highest level in more than two months on March 24.
The dong weakened for a third day following a move by the State Bank of Vietnam on March 24 to widen the currency’s daily trading band. Policy makers allowed the dong to trade up to 5 percent of a daily reference rate, which was set at VND16,975 to the dollar Thursday, from an earlier limit of 3 percent.
The dong declined as much as 0.3 percent to an all-time low of VND17,824 against the US currency, before trading at VND17,787 as of 4:05 p.m. in Hanoi, according to prices from banks compiled by Bloomberg.
thanhnien
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