The Sino-Vietnamese relation after normalization in November 1991 has developed well in all aspects, especially in their trading relation where the growth rate has exceeded all expectations. This is an encouraging result in this relation. In the trading relation with China in 1991-2000, Vietnam enjoyed some trade surplus, but from 2001 on, Vietnam suffered increasing trade gap at a high speed in spite of interventions from both governments. This situation make Vietnam’s trade gap wider affecting unfavorably its sustainable development in its modernization and industrialization. Vietnam should take measure to reduce this trade gap in the relation with China as soon as possible.

In recent months, many leading financial institutions in the U.S. and Europe have gone bankrupt, got acquired and waited for governmental rescue. The global financial crisis affected seriously these economies, which led to predictions of a much lower growth rate. This situation affects Vietnam to a certain extent. With lessons from the 1997 Asian financial crisis, Vietnam should estimate exactly effects of the financial crisis in order to work out possible scenarios and suitable solutions, thereby minimizing unfavorable impacts and making the best use of opportunities if any. This article examines items of the balance of payments in order to identify effects of the global financial crisis because this balance reflects all transactions between Vietnam and the world. These items are numerous, such as export, import, immigrant remittance, direct investment, indirect investment and foreign debt, etc, this article, however, limits itself to export, import, immigrant remittance, direct investment, and indirect investment; and doesn’t examine the ODA and foreign debt because these flows of capital are realized according to agreements between governments

Tien Giang is in the Mekong Delta and Southern Key Economic Zone and therefore, has great potentials for industrial development. In the past few years, Tien Giang has succeeded in maintaining a high growth rate. Its gross output grew by 10% in 2006-08, higher than the national average. Its industrial sector grew by 20.8% in the years 2005-08 helping increase its share in the gross output, which accelerated the industrialization in the province and proved the important role of its industrial parks. My Tho IP is the first one in Tien Giang. It was established by Decision 782/TTg made by the central government on Sep. 20, 1997 with an area of 79.14 hectares. Up to now, four more IPs have been licensed by the central government. They are Tan Huong, Long Giang, Soai Rap IPs and an IP specializing in petroleum technical services (Petroleum Services IP for short). All of them are located in districts with certain advantages. Up till now, however, only My Tho IP has been filled with investment projects while occupancy rate in other IPs varies from 5% to 35%. Examining investment in Tieàn Giang and working out measures to attract it become very necessary for industrial authorities in this province

Small banks in Vietnam are nearing the deadline for increases in their chartered capital to VND1,000 billion as set by Decree 141/2006/NĐ-CP. The last nine banks in the list can be temporarily called “small banks” (De Nhat, Gia Dinh, Thai Binh Duong, My Xuyen, Xang Dau Petrolimex, Kien Long, Viet Nam Thuong Tin, Dai Tin, Dai A) and realities show that no joint stock banks in Vietnam want to be classified as “small.” In excitement after Vietnam’s accession to the WTO, banking authorities wanted commercial banks to beef up their strength in order to enhance their positions in the international integration and competition. Some extreme opinions carried by the press maintained that the WTO membership would put an end to all small banks in Vietnam. Is it certain that all economies, and Vietnam in particular, only need the presence and role of big banks and dismiss the small ones as unnecessary?