HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- Vietnam will launch its long-awaited stock market in Ho Chi Minh City on July 20 but so far only two companies are listed, State Securities Commission Chairman Nguyen Duc Quang said Friday.

  The government has been planning a stock exchange for several years, but had postponed the launch because of a lack of companies willing to list and concerns the market will expose Vietnam's financial system to unnecessary risk.

  Only the Ho Chi Minh City-based Refrigeration Electrical Engineering and the Cables and Telecommunications Materials joint-stock company in neighboring Dong Nai province have been licensed to list their shares.

  But the government says the main source of commodities for the exchange floor will be government bonds, bank bonds and project bonds.

  Quang said Friday he hopes several more companies will be approved before the market's launch.

  Fewer than 400 of some 5,900 state-owned enterprises have been privatized under a government program launched seven years ago in hopes of mobilizing public savings, believed to total billions of dollars. That has become increasingly important with a slowdown in foreign investment.