Hanoi (VNA) - TheGovernment Office last week sent a written document to the central bankgovernor, referring to the mobilisation of idle gold and foreign currencysources from the people.

Under the document, the PrimeMinister required the governor to “continue focusing on doing research andimplementing appropriate solutions to mobilise sources of foreign currency andgold among the people to serve development and investment”.

At a meeting with the PrimeMinister’s working group led by Minister – Chairman of the Government Office MaiTien Dung last month, the request to mobilise sources of foreign currency andgold was also stressed upon.

At the meeting, Governor Le MinhHung also expressed his views on the mobilisation of foreign currency and goldfrom the people by means of stimulating transformation in the past few years.

The governor said overallmacro-economic solutions of the past years were very successful, thanks towhich foreign currency resources were transformed into Vietnamese dong.In 2016, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) bought nearly 10 billion USD toincrease its foreign exchange reserve, a large amount of which came fromforeign currency held by the people, thereby turning into dong.Part of the resource was brought directly by the people into production and businesswhile the other part was sent to commercial banks.

[Gov’t studies making use of idle dollars, gold]

“We think this is the bestsolution to mobilise resources in our context but still maintain macrostability, and not let fluctuation go out of control. Even with gold, in thelast few years, we have not lost foreign currency to import gold; the peoplealso are not pouring resources into buying gold as before, but utilisingresources for the economy. We will continue to report to the Governmentspecific solutions to mobilise resources but still ensure stability” Hung saidat the meeting.

Vietnam stopped the mobilisationof gold in 2011, and a similar move was applied for the dollar in 2015 when thezero percent interest rate for dollar deposits came into effect. The policieshave contributed to restricting dollarisation and goldenisation in the economyand avoiding chaos in the market, with locals not using the dollar and gold asmeans of payment.

However, with the application ofthe policies, for gold alone, it is estimated that there are currently some 500tonnes held by the people, which would be very useful if converted into dong toinvest in the economy.

A similar trend was also seen forthe idle dollar source. The SBV applied the zero percent dollar deposit policyin December 2015, which has contributed to curbing dollarisation in theeconomy, controlling inflation and stabilising the macro economy. However, ithas also prevented some dollar holders from depositing the greenback inbanks.-VNA