Officially abolish the monopoly on gold bar production

From now on, not only SJC Company is allowed to produce gold bars, but qualified businesses and commercial banks are also licensed to produce gold bars.

Officially abolishing the monopoly on gold bar production, from now on the market will have many gold bar brands besides the SJC gold bar brand - Photo: PQ

There will be many gold bar brands

So after 13 years, the gold market returned to its previous state when there were many gold bar brands besides the SJC gold bar brand.

This is a regulation in Decree No. 232, which was just issued by the Government today (August 26), amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 24 (issued on April 3, 2012) on the management of gold trading activities.

This is what the market has been waiting for a long time.

Previously, on May 28, General Secretary To Lam requested to eliminate the state monopoly in gold bar production, allowing many qualified enterprises to participate in order to create an environment of equal competition, diversify supply sources and stabilize prices.

Before 2012, there were many domestic gold bar brands such as Phuong Hoang gold bars of PNJ Company, gold bars of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (SBJ) Jewelry Company,ACB brand gold bars of Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank, AAA gold bars of Agribank...

However, the market still favors the SJC gold bar brand the most. Therefore, many companies, even though they have their own gold bar brands, still line up to process gold bars at SJC Company, especially when the market fluctuates strongly.

At that time, the gold market was constantly experiencing price fevers, causing the exchange rate to fluctuate. In particular, the regulation that banks were allowed to mobilize gold and convert a portion of gold capital into cash at that time also created conditions for some banks to participate in "bullish and bearish" movements, causing waves in the gold market.

Faced with this reality, in 2012 the State Bank made major changes to the gold market. First, SJC became the only national gold bar brand, while other "non-SJC" gold brands were "terminated".

Will the gap between domestic and world gold prices be shortened?

However, there are also side effects of this policy, especially in recent years. From a difference of only a few hundred thousand to a few million VND compared to the world gold price, the price of SJC gold bars and even jewelry gold sometimes differs by 18 - 20 million VND/tael.

Over the past year, as the world gold price has continuously increased due to geopolitical instability, the domestic gold market has been further challenged as the gold supply has gradually dried up due to many years of not producing more SJC gold bars, while the gold supply has decreased significantly through gold exports in the form of fine art jewelry at times when the domestic gold price was lower than the world gold price.

The gold market experienced an unprecedented phenomenon in 2024 when people lined up for days to buy gold, and gold companies had to limit the amount of gold sold to each person to 1 tael of gold bar or 1-2 taels of gold ring due to insufficient supply.

Faced with this reality, the Vietnam Gold Business Association and experts have repeatedly recommended the need to quickly amend Decree 24 to "untie" the gold market, while reducing the gap between domestic and international gold prices. At the Government Standing Committee meeting on gold market management last weekend, the Prime Minister also directed to reduce the gap between gold prices to 1-2%.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/chinh-thuc-xoa-doc-quyen-san-xuat-vang-mieng-20250826162246932.htm