The Government leader made the call at a banking conference held in Hanoi on January 11, the day Vietnam officially became the 150^th member of the Word Trade Organisation.

He appreciated the banking system's contributions to the country's last year dynamic economic growth which stood at almost 8.2 percent despite numerous difficulties such as world price fluctuations, natural calamities and epidemics.

"The banking industry has managed to develop the monetary market and expanded to a number of new banks, thus contributing to stabilising exchange rates and keeping the inflation rate below the economic growth rate," said the PM.

He praised commercial banks for making profitable operations and upgrading their management capacity to international standards and practices.

For 2007, the PM called on commercial banks to increase the competitive edge, control risks, open new services and list their shares on the stock market floor to strengthen their financial portfolio in an effort to compete with international rivals.

He also urged the State Bank of Vietnam to aid the Government in national monetary policies on exchange rate, banking interest and inflation control in order to stabilise the monetary market.

Efforts should be made to materialise the strategy for banking development in line with WTO commitments, thus contributing to the national industrialisation and modernisation, said the Government leader.

He took this opportunity to push five State-owned commercial banks to become joint stock companies as soon as possible to increase their capital.