HANOI. Aug 7: Vietnam has for the first time authorised setting up savings funds on an experimental basis, to attract money It says is not being used for industrial development, the army newspaper said yesterday, reports AFP.

The decision, taken recently by Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet. allows the savings funds to be set up at local, provincial and regional level where contributions will be made on a voluntary basis and will take the form of shares, Quan Doi Nhan

The first funs will be set up in the country's 13 provinces.

The funds will have financial autonomy, the newspaper said, without saying how much capital they would raise or how much Interest would be paid on savings.

The local and provincial funds will coins under the central bank. The regional funds will be directly handled by the government, which will hold shares to a maximum of 40 per cent of the legal capital of the funds, so as to maintain control of the money market, it said: Last month the collapse of a private fund In Ho Chi Minh City left hundred* of savers ruined.