PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - May 20

HANOI, May 20 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in the official Vietnamese press on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories.

FINANCIAL NEWS:

VIETNAM NEWS -- Banks have increased interest rates on dong deposits for the third consecutive week, with some offering as much as 9.5 percent annually, but most bankers believe an interest rate war is unlikely.

TUOI TRE

-- Eximbank said its outstanding loans of gold have more than doubled from the same period last year as investors took advantage of rising gold prices to make profit.

THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM

-- Steel maker Hoa Phat HPG.HM said it made a net profit of 402 billion dong ($22.61 million) during the first four months of this year, or 69 percent of its full-year target. The firm planned to revise its annual dividend payment target to 30 percent from 20 percent.

-- Partly private bank ABBank continued to raise dong deposit rates on all terms by between 0.1 and 0.9 percentage point per year, offering the highest rate of 9.5 percent on 60-month deposits.

DAU TU CHUNG KHOAN

-- Viet Capital Securities Co forecast 25 percent earnings growth this year to 15 billion dong after recording a net profit of 12 billion dong last year. The brokerage earned most of its revenues from banking investments and underwriting last year.

ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:

VIETNAM NEWS

-- Eighteen draft laws will be discussed at the fifth session of the 12th National Assembly which opens its month-long meeting on Wednesday.

-- A patient in the northern province of Ninh Binh who tested positive for cholera died on Monday, a health ministry official said. The disease has hit 12 northern provinces and cities, including the capital Hanoi, and sickened 534 patients.

NHAN DAN

-- Vietnam is tracking five passengers who entered the country after sitting near the American woman of Vietnamese origin on a flight from the United States after the woman was detected to have the H1N1 virus, the Health Ministry said. The patient remained in quarantine in Seoul.

SAIGON GIAI PHONG

-- Vietnam's Mekong Delta should keep 1.76 million hectares (4.3 million acres) of rice fields by 2020 to produce 21.4 million tonnes of paddy per year, while the northern Red River Delta should have 560,000 hectares of rice to produce 7.3 million tonnes by 2020, the Agriculture Ministry said.

LAO DONG

-- A Vietnamese company has dismantled a 5 metre (16.5 ft) high Buddha statue erected illegally near the Sam Son beach in the northern province of Thanh Hoa, the district People's Committee said. ($1 = 17,780 dong) (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom)