PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - June 18
(Corrects LAO DONG newspaper item to the central bank to keep unchanged "the compulsory reserves on banks' foreign currency deposits" from "Vietnam's foreign reserves")
HANOI, June 18 (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:
VIETNAM NEWS
-- The Korea Life Insurance Co Ltd became the first South Korean insurer to establish an office in Vietnam after it received a business licence from the Finance Ministry on June 12.
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NHAN DAN
-- The State Bank of Vietnam, the central bank, has allowed the partly private Military Bank to raise 3 trillion dong ($182 million) via issuing debt papers this year while Saigon Thuong Tin Bank STB.HM won permission to sell 5 trillion dong worth of its debts.
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HANOI MOI
-- The central bank issued a directive on Tuesday requiring all commercial banks to report their loans to real estate projects and for consumer needs.
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LAO DONG
-- The central bank would keep unchanged the compulsory reserves on banks' foreign currency deposits thanks to high foreign currency credit growth during the first five months of this year, State Bank of Vietnam's Monetary Policy Department said.
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THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM
-- The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .VNI has fined five securities companies for cancellation of order execution during continuous order-matching.
-- Many banks have raised their dong deposit rates to more than 18 percent per year.
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ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:
VIETNAM NEWS
-- Northern Vietnam has a huge winter-spring rice crop despite the record cold spell in January, with paddy output easing only 200,000 tonnes from the similar crop last year to 6.5 million tonnes, the Agriculture Ministry's Crop Department said.
-- The Industry and Trade Ministry said it will fine companies and retailers of cooking gas for illegal price hikes after prices reached a record high of 280,000-295,000 dong ($17.5-$18.4) per 12-kg canister in Hanoi, the second rise in June.
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SAIGON GIAI PHONG
-- Retail prices of steel have jumped to around 17 million dong ($1,030) per tonne in southern provinces this week after import prices for steel billets had risen nearly 15 percent to $1,150 a tonne, industry officials said.
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LAO DONG
-- The government will do its utmost to enhance relations with the United States, especially in economic, trade and investment areas for mutual benefit, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told U.S. Assistant Secretary for Trade Israel Hernandez. Two-way trade reached $5.5 billion in the first five months of 2008 compared with more than $11 billion in all of 2007.
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TUOI TRE
-- A 23-year-old soldier opened fire in his Hanoi-based camp on Monday, killing three other soldiers and a woman after being accused of stealing a mobile phone.
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THANH NIEN
-- A heat wave is expected to hit northern provinces this weekend with temperature reaching 40 degree Celcius in some areas, weather forecasters said.
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THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM
-- Vietnam aimed to disburse $2 billion in official development assistance (ODA) this year to invest mainly in roads, railways and industrial parks.
-- Budget carrier Viva Macau said it now flies four times a week between Ho Chi Minh City and Macau with fares starting from $20.
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