During the visit of the Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Germany, BNP Paribas signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Vietnam National Shipping Lines ("Vinalines") at the German-Vietnamese Business Forum in Frankfurt/Main. The purpose of this MoU is to increase the level of cooperation between BNP Paribas and Vinalines in the following areas: - Project Finance; - Export Finance, tied or untied related to all infrastructure projects and ship purchase when appropriate; - Syndicated Term Loans and Trade related facilities; - Ship financing and - Short or medium term loans for general corporate purposes. Such financing arrangements shall cover part of the need of Vinalines, with an initial amount of up to USD 500 million. BNP Paribas has been present in Vietnam for many years, and in 1992 was one of the first foreign banks to obtain a full banking license. BNP Paribas offers its Corporate and Institutional clients in Vietnam a wide range of products and services in the fields of asset management and corporate and investment banking. The group is present in insurance, through its subsidiary Cardif, which signed a partnership at the beginning of the year with Vietcombank and Seabank for the distribution of life insurance, pension and savings products. BNP Paribas has also signed an agreement with a view to taking a stake in Orient Commercial Bank (OCB), the 9th largest private bank in the country.