money 21
June 14-20, 2021 l www.vir.com.vn
By Nhat Minh
T
he incomprehensible tech-
nical latency of the Ho Chi
Minh City Stock Exchange
continues to be the subject
of heated debate, but the Ministry of
Finance’s latest move on intensifying
inspection over trading congestion is
hoped to pave the way for a smoother
and healthier trading platform.
Last week, Minister of Finance
Ho Duc Phuc requested the minis-
try (MoF) to urgently carry out an
inspection of the Ho Chi Minh City
Stock Exchange (HSX) over pro-
longed overload technical issues.
On June 10, the MoF signed
Decision No.81/QD-TTr on
administrative inspection for the
exchange. “Based on the current
Photo: Le Toan
situation of the COVID-19 outbreak
in the city, the inspection team will
have a specific work plan in line
with the regulations on pandemic
prevention and control,” the MoF
said in a statement.
HSX’s trading overload and its
temporary shutdown have been the
subject of controversy over the past
few months. Within a few hours on
June 9, HSX headquarters on Google
Maps was inundated with more than
1,500 1-star reviews, lowering the
average score to 1.1, coming mainly
from local mom-and-pop investors.
On June 11, the Vietnam Associ-
ation of Financial Investors (VAFI)
proposed the MoF to clarify the
Investors demand
logical HSX handling
The HSX was originally built thanks to Thai technology
major reasons behind HSX’s trading
infrastructure incompetence.
“The Stock Exchange of Thai-
land (SET) and Korean Exchange
(KRX) could not build their own
trading infrastructure at first, and they
had to purchase and import technical
support from outside. However, they
quickly adapted the technology and
mastered it. Not only that, they are
now eligible to sell software to other
partners such as HSX in Vietnam,”
VAFI commented.
“Vietnam is proud of itself as a
powerhouse in IT, buy this doesn’t
explain why every time any prob-
lems arise at the HSX, we need Thai
experts to solve them,” the organisa-
tion questioned.
Vu Bang, former chairman at the
State Securities Commission (SSC),
said in an interview, “The HSX tech
is imported from Thailand, so basi-
cally only Thai experts know how to
handle it. When I was the chairman of
the SSC, I had to call for Thai experts
to fix technical problems.”
Moreover, the local stock market
has witnessed a flood of individu-
al investors recently, and excessive
liquidity has seriously hampered the
trading platform. “Even if investors
criticise or express their anger, the
market will not be able to operate
smoothly right away,” Bang added.
On June 9, HSX notified securi-
ties companies on upcoming imple-
mentation of a new infrastructure sys-
tem for the entire stock market, which
is imported from the KRX, based on
a $26.1 million contract between
HSX and KRX made in 2012.
HSX will send technical specifi-
cations to securities companies this
week. In early August, there will be
functional testing. In these two test-
ing phases, securities companies
will be connected to the HSX’s new
system to gain experience. However,
COVID-19 outbreaks have exerted
more pressure, and South Korean
experts have not been able to travel
to Vietnam.
“Why did HSX not opt for Viet-
namese contractors? In that way, if
there were any problems, Vietnamese
companies could quickly deal with
them without depending on foreign
experts,” VAFI said.
In terms of KRX’s fresh adoption,
VAFI requested the MoF to clarify
the reason why the project has been
delayed since the deal was made in
2012. Inspectors should also find
out if the project value has increased
compared to its initial plan, and what
caused the project value to increase,
if at all.
“The SET and KRX are stock
exchanges and they do not specialise
in IT. They have talented IT experts,
but they would keep their own sys-
tems running smoothly as the top pri-
ority, not the infrastructure of others.
Therefore, when purchasing foreign
trading software technology, HSX
must ensure how to deal with arising
errors,” VAFI said.n