Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam aims to make the size ofits stock market equal to 100 percent and 120 percent of the gross domesticproduct (GDP) in 2020 and 2025, respectively.

The country also looks to develop its bondmarket to be equivalent to 47 percent and 55 percent of the GDP in thoserespective years.

Meanwhile, the number of listed companies nextyear needs to increase by at least 20 percent from 2017. The number of investorsin the market should account for 3 percent of the population in 2020 and 5percent in 2025, according to Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue.

Hue made the statements while addressing ameeting of the State Securities Commission of Vietnam (SSC) in Hanoi onFebruary 22.

He noted that in 2019, relevant agencies musttake stronger actions to develop a transparent, professional, and modern marketthat matches international practices, thus enhancing investors’ trust so as tosoon upgrade Vietnam’s stock market from a frontier market to an emerging one.

The Deputy PM also requested that they ensure areasonable structure between private and organisation investors, and betweendomestic and foreign ones, while facilitating the development of professionalinvestors.

The Ministry of Finance and the SSC need to makethe financial market healthier and improve the capacity of securities businessorganisations, he said, adding that all transaction and payment technologies onthe stock market must be reformed by 2020.

SSC Vice Chairman Pham Hong Son said that in2018, the stock market proved to be an effective capital mobilisation channelfor both the Government and the private sector. The Vietnamese market wasassessed as the most successful in Southeast Asia in terms of capitalmobilisation.

More than 278 trillion VND (11.97 billion USD)was mobilised through the stock market last year, up 14 percent from 2017. Itincluded 192 trillion VND worth of government bonds raised for the Government,and over 86 trillion VND for businesses.

This has helped companies expand theirproduction and business activities and reduce their reliance on bank loans, henoted.

This year, the SSC will focus on perfectingrevisions to the Securities Law and drafting documents guiding itsimplementation. It will continue working to develop intermediary organisationsin the market and to set up the Vietnam Stock Exchange on the basis of theHanoi and Ho Chi Minh stock exchanges.

Son added that more actions will also be made toupgrade Vietnam’s stock market from a frontier to an emerging market in therankings of the Modern Index Strategy Indexes (MSCI) and the Financial TimesStock Exchange (FTSE). –VNA