“We are impressed by the growth of the Vietnamese stock market, whose VN Index rose by almost 60 percent last year,” said the head of the delegation, Kanjanapetcharat Somchai.

Mr Somchai, who directs Thailand’s second largest securities company, KT Zmico, told a seminar on potential opportunities held at the HCM City Stock Exchange late last week that every investor desired such a growth and Thai investor will likely tap the potential of this market in Vietnam.

He praised Vietnam for its political stability and cited recent chaos in Thailand that had a negative impact on its SET Index.

However, the Thai delegates raised concerns over the bourse’s poor range of securities trading tools and issues such as Vietnamese regulations which confine investors to one trading account and prevent securities from being sold the same day they are bought.

Meanwhile, some 200 Taiwanese entrepreneurs attended a seminar held in HCM City last Saturday to introduce the newly launched Vietnam Active Investment Fund (VFA) of Vietnam Fund Management (VFM).

The deputy director general of VFM, Pham Khanh Lynh, said his company’s market research predicted strong interest from Chinese investors in general and the Taiwanese community in particular.

He planned to hold another event in Singapore for 70 potential Chinese investors.