PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - July 16
HANOI, July 16 (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:
LAO DONG
-- The State Bank of Vietnam has reminded commercial banks about upholding the 21-percent ceiling for lending rates in the Vietnamese dong.
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TUOI TRE
-- Employees at Bach Tuyet Cotton Corporation BBT.HM have sought official help to ask the company's largest shareholder, the Gia Dinh Garment Co, to approve Bach Tuyet's share issue as a measure to save the company, which has reported losses.
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THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM
-- Partly private Eximbank raised dong interest rate by 0.54 percentage point per year to 18.84 percent.
-- Partly private SeA Bank reported its first-half gross profit at 258 billion dong ($15.6 million), up 30 percent from the same period last year. SeA Bank raised nearly 13.9 trillion dong ($842 million) in deposit during the first half and lent 11.2 trillion dong ($679 million).
-- South Korea is the biggest investor in Vietnam with combined investments of $15.3 billion since 1988. In 2007, South Korea invested $2.7 billion in Vietnam's stock markets, the Finance Ministry of South Korea said.
-- Saigon Hanoi Commercial Bank launched a $1-million tender package "Core Banking System" on Monday which would help the bank build a modern technology base to diversify its products and services.
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ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:
VIETNAM NEWS
-- Vietnam's monthly consumer price index rise will slow to 1.5-1.7 percent in the latter part of this year from a monthly growth of more than 2 percent in the previous months, Vietnamese economists said at a seminar on controlling inflation.
-- Investigations have begun into the alleged illegal dumping of toxic chemicals and industrial waste from the Hyundai (009540.KS)-Vinashin shipyard in the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa.
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HANOI MOI
-- Vietnam's consumer price index this year is forecast to rise between 23 percent and 24 percent from 2007, said Ngo Tri Long, former head of the Finance Ministry's Market and Price Research Institute.
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TIN TUC
-- The Industry and Trade Ministry forecast Vietnam's imports this year would reach $80.2 billion, or $6.5 billion below initial projections, with a main decline of $4.2 billion in the purchase of essential goods such as steel, oil products, fertiliser and paper pulp.
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NHAN DAN
-- Gold prices in Vietnam rose to their three-month high at 19.35 million dong ($1,172) per tael on Tuesday, tracking gains on international markets.
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SAIGON GIAI PHONG
-- Consumption of chemicals in Vietnam has dropped sharply, with several companies now reporting their consumption falling by about 30 percent from last July after selling prices have doubled this year, chemicals trading firms said. Vietnam mostly imports chemicals from China.
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THANH NIEN
-- IDG Chairman Patrick McGovern said the group had raised $600 million in venture capital to invest in start-ups in Vietnam over the next two years.
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