Speaking to reporters in HCMC on Wednesday, GAP chairman Bernard Pouliot said that most members of GAP as well-established financial service providers were interested in the local market, seeing Vietnam as a growth market for business and investment operations.

“So the members are now here to gauge the market and look for investment opportunities in Vietnam,” he said, adding Vietnam was a highly attractive country.

Pouliot, who also serves as chairman of Quam Financial Services Group (Hong Kong), mentioned several investment funds under GAP’s umbrella that are ready to flow capital into Vietnam.

Capital Partners in Japan, which is a member of GAP and has established a US$250-million fund for two years, has plans to invest more in Vietnam, after it arranged a successful partnership with Dragon Capital as one of the biggest asset managers in Vietnam, he said.

Pouliot said that his group also had a Quam Opportunities Fund worth US$20 million that has invested in several projects in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines but not in Vietnam. However, Quam will increase more capital for its fund to invest in the country in the coming time.

“We are excited to see our expansion in Asia, especially in Vietnam. Vietnam is amongst many popular emerging markets for investment,” he said.

The two funds will invest into Vietnam though consultancy of Vietnam’s Thanh Cong Securities Joint Stock Company (TCSC), which is a member of GAP, he said.

Thailand’s Seamico Securities Public Company Limited, a partner of GAP, has become a foreign strategic investor of TCSC with a stake of nearly 19%.

Chaipatr Srivisarvacha, executive and CEO of the Thai Company, said that it had plans to invest more in Vietnam by injecting more capital into TCSC. He disclosed that his company would raise its stake in TCSC to 49% from the current nearly 19%.

TCSC founded by Thanh Cong Group is now one of the top 15 securities companies in the local market with chartered capital of more than VND350 billion.

Chaipatr Srivisarvacha said he believed in Vietnam’s economic development in the future and that Vietnam was one of a few countries that are developing with economic positives in the face of the global economic crisis. “That is the reason why Seamico wants to invest more in Vietnam,” he said.

Through Seamico, one of the top five largest listed securities companies in Thailand, TCSC is becoming a member of GAP, which has connected TCSC to its worldwide network from Vietnam to Hong Kong, China, Japan, the U.S., the U.K., UAE, and Thailand.

The GAP delegation on Wednesday also visited some industrial parks in HCMC and surrounding provinces including the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park and Song Than Industrial Park in Binh Duong Province, and Tan Thuan Processing Export Zone in HCMC.

GAP (http://www.globalalliancepartners.com) is an international network of like-minded financial services that aim to leverage existing execution platforms to expand cross-border capabilities covering private equity, pre-IPO and funds management placement opportunities.

Its members are all well-established financial services firms in their respective home markets.