The move had been planned for six years and is now set to be finalised as pressure mounts amid the world financial crisis.

The Vietnam Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) plans to float four per cent of its shares on the Ho Chi Minh City stock exchange on Dec 25, said the chairman of the bank's board, Mr Pham Huy Hung.

It may also sell up to 20 per cent of the bank's capital to strategic foreign investors by mid-2009, he said.

The listing will 'help us to increase our financial and competitive capacities', Mr Hung said.

'We are aware of the impact of the world financial crisis but the date of the privatisation was decided by the government after a long period of preparation,' since 2002, he added.

Another state bank, Vietcombank, launched a move to list its shares in 2007 but that has not yet taken place.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday predicted Vietnam's economic growth will slow to five per cent next year, and pressed it to pursue reforms in a banking sector weighed down by bad loans.

Vietnam must address 'weaknesses in the banking and corporate sectors - especially in state-owned enterprises', the IMF's Assistant Director for the Asia and Pacific Department, Mr Shogo Ishii, told a donors' conference in Hanoi.

'There are signs of strain emanating from deteriorating asset quality, and these could intensify in the period ahead.' -- AFP