From 2012 until now, Vietnam’s policy of monopolizing gold production and trading has greatly affected the economy and people’s lives. This is the cause of the turmoil in the gold market, which the government cannot control.
Specifically, since that time, the price of gold in the country and internationally has always had a difference of nearly VND20 million/tael. As well, the difference between the buying price and the selling price is about VND3 million-VND4 million/tael. This policy has created conditions for gold smuggling from abroad into Vietnam. For each amount of smuggled gold stamped according to the SJC 9999 gold bar model, one can immediately earn a profit of VND15 million-VND16 million/tael.
This is the consequence of Decree No. 24/2012/ND-CP, abbreviated as Decree 24 of the Government, which stipulates: The State has a monopoly on the production of gold bars, the export and import of raw gold to produce gold bars, with the aim of overcoming the situation of large differences in domestic gold prices with international prices, as well as gold speculation. But the results are completely opposite.
Public opinion and experts see that Decree 24 has created an unjust, unreasonable and unacceptable mechanism. This is a typical form of the State taking money from the people’s pockets, through unreasonable policies of group interests.
On November 9, VnExpress reported that “6 staff of Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC) were probed for the case of buying and selling gold to ‘stabilize prices’.” The news reported that the Ministry of Public Security’s Investigation Police Agency has probed 6 staff for the crime of “embezzlement of property and abuse of position and power while performing official duties” at SJC.
Accordingly, the 6 people mentioned above, and related units were probed for taking advantage of the purchase and sale of gold to stabilize prices, creating fake documents, and appropriating assets. SJC is a 100% state-owned enterprise, under the People’s Committee of Ho Chi Minh City. This is the only unit licensed by the State Bank to exclusively produce gold and trade gold bars from 2014 to present.
The majority of consumers’ opinions over the years have always been skeptical about the quality and price of this exclusive item. A simple comparison, with the same type of 9999 gold on the market, it only needs to be stamped according to the SJC gold model, then pressed into a plastic shell. The value immediately increased to 130%, an unimaginable profit.
Decree 24 of the Government was issued in April 2012, just over a year after Nguyen Phu Trong became the first General Secretary in 2011, and has been maintained continuously until now. That is the reason why there have been rumors and suspicions that Trong and interest groups are related to this policy.
Since the beginning of 2024, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has issued a directive requiring the stabilization of the gold market, as well as the elimination of monopoly in the trading of SJC brand gold bars but has not been successful.
According to financial experts, the SJC gold market in Vietnam has the participation of many interest groups and powerful individuals including banks, large enterprises, and financial institutions, etc. At the same time, the operation and control of the SJC gold market in Vietnam is a rather complicated process, because there is coordination between domestic and foreign interest groups.
Public opinion hopes that the case of the Ministry of Public Security’s Investigation Police Agency probing 6 officials of Saigon Jewelry Company (SJC) is the initial process in the stable operation and control of the gold market according to the policy of General Secretary To Lam.
It is time for the government to clarify which officials and interest groups have initiated the monopoly on the production of SJC gold bars, how the policy is abused for personal gain, and must be strictly handled. In short, the monopoly on the gold trading, or the political monopoly, is not good.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
