PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - March 3

HANOI, March 3 (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

-- Police in the northern port city of Haiphong detained about 300 people for alleged drug abuse in a raid on the city's popular UFO Club.

-- Office rents jumped 40 percent in Ho Chi Minh City's business districts in the past year to about $68 per square metre due to space shortage, real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield said in a report.

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VIETNAM INVESTMENT REVIEW

-- Record credit growth has been a major cause of the banking system's serious liquidity crunch and high consumer price index, bankers said.

-- Kumho Tyres Co Ltd (073240.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) of South Korea said it would invest $200 million in a plant in the southern province of Binh Duong using Vietnamese rubber. Vietnam, with 1.1 million automobiles and nearly 22 million motorcycles, was seen as a lucrative market for tyre makers, the company said.