PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - March 17
HANOI, March 17 (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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VIETNAM NEWS
-- Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has called on the State Bank of Vietnam, the central bank, to take simultaneous steps to control inflation and achieve high economic growth.
-- HT Mobile has received a licence to invest in changing its existing CDMA technology-based service with 200,000 subscribers to GSM technology. The carrier is a $650-million venture with Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd (2332.HK) (HTX.N).
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NHAN DAN
-- The Health Ministry warned people about cholera and said they should be careful about eating food from sidewalk vendors.
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QUAN DOI NHAN DAN
-- More storms and tropical low pressure systems may affect Vietnam earlier than last year, said Bui Van Duc, director of the National Hydro and Meteorology Forecast Centre.
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SAIGON GIAI PHONG
-- Private trading firms are putting pressure on sugarcane prices in the Mekong Delta, where farmers sold them up to 80 percent of their crop. The harvest is due to end in about a month while sugar refineries are short of cane for production, a Can Tho Sugar Co executive said.
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LAO DONG
-- The central bank should widen the dollar/dong trading band, probably to 2 percent, and adjust the interbank exchange rate further to help deal with the dollar shortages, said Tran Hoang Ngan, a member of the National Advisory Council for Financial and Monetary Policy.
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TUOI TRE
-- A bird flu outbreak was detected in the central province of Quang Nam after tests on duck samples there confirmed the presence of the H5N1 virus.
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THANH NIEN
-- The Construction Ministry released a draft plan to increase the supply of affordable housing, dampen speculation and make the market more transparent.
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DAU TU
-- Petrovietnam could sign a contract with foreign firms in April for the Nghi Son oil refinery, Vietnam's second. The refinery would be capable of processing at least 8.4 million tonnes of crude a year, or nearly 170,000 barrels per day.
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VIETNAM INVESTMENT REVIEW
-- Exporters called on the government to give them priority for dong loans for exports because their businesses are having difficulty changing dollars to dong in the central bank-imposed liquidity crunch to fight double-digit inflation.
- - - - (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom)
