PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - Aug 25
HANOI, Aug 25 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in the official Vietnamese press on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
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FINANCIAL NEWS:
TUOI TRE
-- Several securities companies cut down their network of transaction centres as investors prefer placing orders via distant methods.
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DAU TU CHUNG KHOAN
-- The State Securities Commission (SSC) aimed to complete the transformation of the Hanoi exchange .HASTCI into to a one-member limited company, SSC Chairman Vu Bang said.
-- Partly-private SaigonBank expected its gross profit for the whole year of 2008 to reach 272 billion dong ($16 million). The bank, mostly owned by Vietcombank and Vietinbank, earned 125 billion dong in gross profit for the first half of this year when it raised more than 9 trillion dong in deposits and lent about 8 trillion dong.
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ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:
VIETNAM NEWS
-- The remains of nearly 5,600 Vietnamese soldiers who died in battles in Cambodia have been repatriated to Vietnam, the Military Zone 7 Command said.
-- Vietnamese gold importers have bought 60 tonnes of gold of the 73.5-tonne quota allowed for 2008, the Gold Business Association said.
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VIETNAM INVESTMENT REVIEW
-- The central bank may consider changing the base interest rates for dong loans in October, a central bank official said.
-- Japanese electronics giant Canon (7751.T) said it had completed building the world's largest laser printer manufacturing facility in Bac Ninh province, near Hanoi. The complex can meet 35 percent of world's demand for laser printer, Canon Vietnam Chief Executive Sachio Kageyama said.
-- Office rent in Ho Chi Minh City has fallen by up to 15 percent so far this year from the end of last year as many companies hold back expansion plans, real estate firm CB Richard Ellis said.
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TUOI TRE
-- Rice mills and export firms have slowed their paddy purchase in the Mekong Delta due to a thinning supply of high-quality grain and a short storage time of the low-quality rice, contributing to a fall in prices late last week.
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THANH NIEN
-- Mekong Delta provinces have attracted $2.8 billion worth of foreign direct investment so far this year, of which $1.65 billion were in pledges for projects in Kien Giang province alone.
- - - - (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom)
