BankAmerica to lend Vietnam $5 million.

HANOI -- BankAmerica Corp. is one of eight foreign banks that have agreed to lend Vietman a total of $100 million, Reuters has reported.

The loan is the first by a U.S. bank to the country since the end of the Vietman War, a bank official said.

BankAmerica is lending $5 million as part of a syndicate led by the Export-Import Bank of Thailand, according to BankAmerica vice president and Indochina representative Luu H. Le.

The syndicate includes Deutsche Bank and Thailand's Krung Thai Bank, banking sources said.

Other participants, terms and amounts involved in the five-year loan, expected to be signed with the State Bank of Vietnam later this month, were not known.

"It's not concessional but I think Vietnam got a good deal," said a banker involved in the deal.

The loan will be used to finance the upgrading of roads, ports, and other projects that Vietnam regards as vital to its goal of achieving 8% annual growth until the turn of the century,

Mr. Le said that BankAmerica hoped to get permission for a representative office in Ho Chi Minh City.

The bank received Federal Reserve Board clearance last month for its applications to open branches in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

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