The Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Banking Group is pitching toservice the corporate bond market in Vietnam , which is reopeningafter several slow years.

Tareq Muhmood, the bank’schief executive for Vietnam , told “The Australia” newspaper that themarket has been very quiet over the past two and a half years but ANZhas been one of the first banks to reactivate it recently with a bondissue.

"We are starting to see more interest inVietnam as a destination for investment. I expect this will be veryimportant over the next few years," he said.

Muhmood stated that at present, ANZ is putting some more resources andalso talking to a lot of investors such as insurance companies and fundmanagers, both in the region and from Europe and North America .

“We are in discussions with a few other companies about their capitalneeds and we expect to be doing some more over the next few years,” headded.

The Vietnamese corporate bond market got offthe ground after the country joined the World Trade Organisation in 2006but it has been closed over recent years as the country’s economicgrowth has slowed.

With a young population of more than90 million people, Vietnam is seen as one of the emerging markets ofSoutheast Asia. -VNA