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Quotations in US$: People and institutions have to respect laws
On April 21, while answering questions from VietNamNet about the quotation of commodity prices in dollars, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Van Giau said that price quotation in dollars is legal only with the permission of the prime minister. Giau stressed that institutions and individuals that violate the laws on foreign currency management will be heavily punished.
Commodity price quotation in dollars proves to be popular, and causes risks to buyers. What would you, as the head of the State Bank of Vietnam, say about this?
We have concrete regulations about that. Article No 22 of the Forex Management Ordinance clearly stipulates that Vietnam does not allow prices to be quoted in foreign currencies in Vietnam’s market. If institutions or individuals want to quote prices in dollars, they must get the permission of the prime minister.
I know that prices are still being quoted in dollars, here and there. If state agencies discover violations, the violators will be punished in accordance with the laws.
But don't enterprises say they quote prices in dollars because they see many other enterprises quoting prices in dollars already and they can get away with it?
They must not say this. People and enterprises have to respect the laws. Law is supreme and the provisions of the laws must be obeyed. People must not do something just because they follow others.
Many commercial banks recently complained that companies which have foreign currencies do not sell foreign currencies to banks, causing the shortage of dollars, thus making the foreign currency market tense, is this right?
Regarding the forex management policy, we are following a flexbile forex management policy based on supply and demand.
The Prime Minister, when speaking before international investors in Hong Kong, said that we had favourable conditions in Q1 2009: We had trade surplus at $1.65bil.
However, it is true that some businesses have been trying to keep dollars and not to sell to banks, which has pushed the dollar prices up.
Which measures we will apply to settle the problems?
The foreign currency reserves have not changed, while we have a trade surplus, which are key favourable conditions.
Regarding the forex management, though we have a lot of legal documents, we still keep close watch over the implementation of the policies, so that we can settle any problem that arises.
For example, the foreign exchange agents which do not follow Decision 21 by the Governor of the State Bank on foreign currency exchange will have their licences revoked. We will also discipline the directors of commercial banks who grant licences wrongly. We will release documents on the issue in some days.
Phuoc Ha
vietnamnet
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