PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - Sept 3

HANOI, Sept 3 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in the official Vietnamese press on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

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FINANCIAL NEWS:

TUOI TRE

-- The central bank has asked commercial banks to report on credit provision for export and import businesses so that the central bank could help those businesses tackle any difficulty in time.

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THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM

-- EVN Finance, the financial arm of the Electricity of Vietnam, officially came into operation on Monday. The company has a capital base of 2.5 trillion dong ($151.5 million). The company is also owned by partly private An Binh Bank and refrigeration engineering firm REE REE.HM.

-- The State Bank allowed the partly private Saigon Commercial Bank to provide forex services overseas.

-- The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .VNI would execute online trading from December this year after its member brokerages, in the trial phase, successfully set up connection with the exchange, deputy director Nguyen Manh Hung said.

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LAO DONG

-- State-run BIDV revised its 2008 revenues down an additional 100 billion dong ($6 million) after the bank cut lending rates for the third time this year on Monday.

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ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:

THANH NIEN

-- The central bank has asked commercial banks to submit their plans to raise chartered capital. Under the bank's rule, commercial banks would have to raise their base capital to 1 trillion dong by the end of 2008 and 3 trillion dong by the end of 2010.

-- Vietnamese footwear makers have laid off at least 40,000 workers due to lower demand from European buyers due to dumping tariffs imposed by the European Union earlier this year, the Vietnam Footwear Association Lefaso said.

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TUOI TRE

-- Universities have raised tuitions by more than 10 percent this year to around $600 per year to $900 per year due to higher cost.

-- Ericsson has signed a contract worth $450 million with Hanoi Telecom, the operator of HT Mobile, to develop a GSM mobile phone network.

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THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM

-- The government would introduce a new law on the establishment of new banks within the third quarter of 2008.

-- The monthly consumer price index in September is expected to ease to 1 percent, said Hoang Tho Xuan, Director of Trade Ministry's Domestic Markets Department.

- - - - (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom)