BEN CHUONG DUONG
When the oriental pearl gained regional currency

A Wall Street in HCM City? That sound like a tall claim for a city that, despite being the nation's commercial hub , is many leagues away from the bigger and much more developed economies and financial sectors in the region and the world.

But, we should remember, it was not so long ago that the city was known as the Pearl of the Orient. Historical records show, the city did indeed host Southeast "Asia's Wall Street."

Old times and banking officers also confirm that the "Sai Gon Wall Street" did exert an influence on the region's financial market until 1975, and that the market this (the greener) side of the Sai Gon River was crowded with merchants coming in and out of plush offices, following up on their financial transactions, while on the other side, the poor toiled to make ends meet every day.

Scholar Truong Vinh Ky notes in his Souvenirs historiques sur Sai Gon et ses environs," that the area now covering Chuong Duong, Ham Nghi, Ho Tung Mau, Nguyen Cong Tru and Ton That Dam streets was the most opulent in the city.

Stone houses with wooden floors and tiled roofs stood on one side of Chuong Duong Street in stark contrast to the other side of the Sai Gon River, when the dwellings were made of bamboo poles with thatched-leaf roofs.

From the time of Nguyen emperors until the French arrived in Sai Gon, Chuong Duong Street, which runs along the Sai Gon River, had been a major trading place. Chuong Duong Harbour was always thronged by boats from the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta transporting food supplies to the city and returning with consumer goods.

It was natural then, that this was the where major banks chose to established in Viet Nam was the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation in 1870 at No. 1 Ho Tung Mau Street (called Adran then). This bank specialised in trading finance.

The old sombre Roman-style building with large pillars at No. 17, Chuong Duong Street (Route Bays during the French colonial days) is where the Banque de l' Indochine (later changed to Banque Nationale de Paris) was established by the French in 1875. It was replaced by the Viet Nam National Bank under the puppet Sai Gon administration and taken over by the new Vietnamese Government after reunification in 1975. The building now hosts the HCM City branch of the State Bank of Viet Nam.

Further down the street, 12 building to be exact, stands the HCM City branch of Vietcombank, housed in a smaller building that also boasts Roman architecture. Previously, it was the office of the Banque Franciase de L'Asie.

Other prestigious banks that had their offices in the area before reunification include the Standard Chartered Bank, which first opened its office in 1904, the Bank of East Asia (1921), the Banque Franciase pour le Commerce (1922), the Bank of China, City Bank, Chase Manhattan, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, Hong Kong Bank, VID Public Bank, Bank of Communication, Tokyo Mitsubishi, Fuji and Sakura. After the city was liberated in 1975, many foreign banks close their operations here.

Over the past 15 years, many old and new banks have renewed their interest and returned to Viet Nam as the nation opened its doors to foreign investment and stepped up the pace of economic growth with its renovation policy.

But the former "Wall Street area" with the prime location its near harbour is no longer the first choice for the banks to set up their offices. They are moving into high-rise buildings located deep in the commercial centre of the city.

Before Sai Gon was liberated in 1975, there were 27 foreign and domestic banks with 60 branches spread out in the city. The area near the harbour played its Wall Street role during the French occupation, but gradually lost this function as the French left and America decided to step in.

Regaining the glory of those days id a tough call for the city, with Singapore and Hong Kong providing the most advanced and developed banking sectors servicing the region and the world.

But a modest beginning of sorts has been made to providing financial and banking services of international standards, and this is reflected in the establishment of Viet Nam's first Securities Trading Centre at No.45-47 Chuong Duong Street.

There are more than 70 Vietnamese and international banks with more than 100 representative offices in the city.

However, a Vietcombank official says that the operations of the banks here are still at the individual-level. State-owned banks in the city are just branch offices, which means that all decisions are made in Ha Noi.

"It would be a bit embarrassing to call in the Wall Street," he said. "The banks here have influence only in the domestic market, and our stock market is virtually a child's game"

Notes from "Sai Gon Wall Street"

*110 years ago, on August 13, 1891, the Banque de 1'Indocchine issued the first every currency note in Viet Nam. The special feature of the note was that it had the French script on one side and Chinese script on the other. The present Roman script of the Vietnamese languageh ad not been popularised then.

*Most of the foreign banks were opened before 1945 and Vietnamese banks established after 1955.

*The first bank opened and run by the Vietnamese in Sai Gon - the Viet Nam Bank - was established in 1927 with a capital of 250,000 dong.

*On September 22, 1975, the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic Southern Viet Nam announced that the money used by the old Sai Gon regime would be revoked and new money issued by the Bank of Viet Nam for the entire southern region. One dong of the old regime.

Harbouring a northern wharf

The 3km-long, 40m-wide street runs from Ham Nghi Street to Nguyen Van Cu street. During the French occupation, the stretch from Ham Nghi to Nguyen Thai Hoc street was called Quai d' Arroyo Chinois, and the rest was named Quai de Belgique.

In March, 1995, the two were merged to make the Chuong Duong Street, which now comprises of three distinct segments.

The banking segment is followed by one that has shops selling construction materials. Some of the "box" houses that are stacked up next to each other still display Chinese characters.

The third part stands out for its fishy smell. Wholesale traders gather at the Cau Muoi market to sell fish, oyster, crabs, mussels, clams and other kinds of brackish-water species at cheap prices.

Chuong Duong gets its name from a wharf on the Red River in the northern Ha Tay Province's Thuong Tin District, about 20km west of Ha Noi. It is not clear how the wharf got its name, though.

In early 1285, when the Yuan army from China invaded Viet Nam, the wharf was the site of one of the three fiercest battles fought on the river. These battles proved instrumental in ending the six-month occupation of Thang Long by 500,00 Yuan troops. – VNS