Financial officials of Vietnam and the Republic of Korea (RoK) discussed their countries’ policies on dealing with the global financial crisis and attracting foreign investment.

The officials’ meeting formed part of a Vietnam-RoK policy dialogue programme, jointly organised by the Vietnamese Finance Ministry and the RoK Finance and Strategy Ministry.

In the storm of the global financial crisis in 2009, the Vietnamese Government deployed economic stimulus packages and generous financial and monetary policies as well as measures to ensure social welfare for its people, said Pham Van Ha from the Finance Ministry’s Policy Consultancy Group.

To deal with the post-crisis period, Vietnam is working to economise its spending to reduce the budget deficit, allocate stimulus funds to the construction of infrastructure, and keep prices of strategic commodities unchanged to stabilise the price generally, Ha said.

In addition, the country will enhance the transparency of its financial market by completing the establishment of a real estate market as soon as possible and increasing the provision of information on the securities market, the official shared with other participants.

Meanwhile, Head of the Foreign Investment Management Agency of the Ministry of Planning and Investment Do Nhat Hoang unveiled the Vietnamese target of mobilising a total investment of 300 billion USD, with 33 percent of which coming from foreign investment in the 2011-2015 period.

Dr. Joo-Kyung Kim from the RoK Development Institute said his country is currently deploying a policy that seeks to monitor the liquidity of foreign currencies, axe bank interest rates, launch stimulus packages in a broad scope, increase support of small and medium-sized businesses, and strengthen banks.

He said his country drew a lesson from the global financial crisis that underscored the need to apply policies to control capital, manage foreign exchange reserve and cooperate financially with regional countries./.