PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - July 18
HANOI, July 18 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in the official Vietnamese press on Friday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
- - - -
FINANCIAL NEWS:
THANH NIEN
-- The interest rates of 17-18 percent on dong deposits are reasonable in the context that inflation has shown sign of slowing, ACB ACB.HN CEO Ly Xuan Hai said.
- - -
THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM
-- Revenues from insurance services in Vietnam of the U.S insurer ACE Life soared 131 percent in the first six months of 2008 from the same period last year.
-- The State Securities Commission granted an operating licence to Technological and Commercial Fund Management Company, which is a subsidiary of partly private Techcombank.
-- Petrovietnam Finance Joint Stock Corporation (PVFC) said its first-half revenues rose 37.7 percent from the same period last year to 1.8 trillion dong ($107 million), bringing the gross profit to 198 billion dong. PVFC planned to open a representative office in Singapore and list shares on the Singapore Stock Exchange during the second half of 2008.
- - - -
ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:
VIETNAM NEWS
-- Police in Ho Chi Minh City have detained four South Korean nationals and two Vietnamese for organising an audition of 121 Vietnamese prospective brides in a hotel in the city earlier this week. South Korean men seeking to marry Vietnamese girls would have had to pay up to $10,000 in match-making fees, officials said.
-- Furniture exports are expected to rise to $3 billion this year from $2.5 billion last year, making Vietnam the biggest wooden furniture exporter in Southeast Asia, the Industry and Trade Ministry said.
- - - -
TIN TUC
-- Shopping revenues in supermarkets and malls rose to 14 percent of the value by all shopping activities last year, from 9 percent in 2005 and are expected to rise to 24 percent in 2010, the Vietnam Retailers Association said.
- - - -
THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM
-- Vietnamese cashew processors are expected to buy all the remaining 50,000 tonnes of cashew from domestic markets and also aim to import a total of 150,000 tonnes more from Indonesia, Cambodia and eastern African countries to ensure they will reach the annual target to export 150,000 tonnes of shelled nuts this year with projected revenues of $800 million to $850 million.
- - - -
DAU TU
-- South Korea's POSCO (005490.KS) has proposed to invest $5.38 billion in building a steel complex on an island off Vietnam's central province of Khanh Hoa. If the project is approved by this November, construction would be completed in March 2013 and the steel mill will produce 4 million tonnes of hot-rolled steel per year during its first phase.
- - - - (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom)
