The Asian Development Bank and the State Bank of Vietnam Jul 25 signed two technical assistance deals worth US$1.1 million in grant to help improve professional skills for small and medium enterprises and business climate in Vietnam.
The grant is directly to be funded by the Japanese government.
The first US$500,000 technical assistance will focus on improving the local business climate in the 2008-2010 period and the second US$600,000 technical assistance is aimed at bettering professional skills for SMEs in service and industrial sectors. (VNA)
Anti-money laundering center under the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has not found any signs of money laundering in banking transactions since its establishment in March last year, a seminar in Hanoi heard July 25.
The center had investigated 20 transactions suspected of laundering money but found no trace of the crime, Pham Mai Phuong from the center said at the anti-money laundering seminar.
Phuong, however, alerted that Vietnam will deal with the crime in a more sophisticated manner in the future as its World Trade Organization membership provides a fertile ground for this activity.
Vietnam has adopted regulations mandating the fight against money laundering, notably Article 251 of the 1999 Penal Code, Article 19 of the 1997 Law on Credit Organizations and the Governmental decree on the combat of money laundering issued in 2005.
Advisor to the Vietnam-based UN Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Ric Power, said Vietnamese law enforcement agencies have not yet interpreted the regulations into their operations and thus failed to perform effectively in the fight against the laundering of money.
The UNODC official also recommended the nationwide deployment of measures to combat money laundering in line with international standards.
He outlined the need to formulate an anti-money laundering system to aid the fight against corruption and crime.
The UNODC has to date helped concerned Vietnamese agencies to improve their working capability and build the anti-money laundering system.
In November, experts of the Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) will come to Vietnam to enquire into and assess the country’s anti-money laundering activities.
According to the anti-money laundering decree issued by the Government in June, 2005, financial institutions are obligated to report to the SBV’s anti-money laundering center of suspicious transactions, deals in cash or foreign currencies and gold worth more than VND200 million and saving deposits of VND500 million upward for investigations on money laundering. (Vietnam Post)
Vietnamese
