Eligible banks and enterprises will be licensed to import raw gold and produce bullion — a function that, until now, has been exclusively assigned to a single entity.

Legislators said adjustments to the gold bullion market policy should be implemented years ago, rather than delayed until now, in order to narrow the gap between domestic and global gold prices and to better control gold bullion smuggling across borders, which remains challenging.

The narrowing of the gap between domestic and global gold prices may further pull down the selling price of SJC-branded gold bullion of state-owned commercial banks and Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC) in the near future, Dao Xuan Tuan, Director General of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV)'s Foreign Exchange Management Department, has said.

Another bidding session for 16,800 taels of gold bullion will be held on April 25, the State Bank of Vietnam said in a statement.

The value of Thailand's gems and jewellery exports was 351 billion baht (11.45 billion USD) in the first eight months of 2019, up 45.8 percent year on year.

Customs officers at the Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City on March 20 detained a Korean man after he was found illegally transporting a gold bullion to the Incheon airport in the Republic of Korea.