Vietnam News Agency (VNA)

Press Highlights Apr. 24

24/04/2008 -- 9:16 AM

Hanoi (VNA) -
Current events

· Vietnam-China relationship continues with growing trend (Nhan dan, p1). Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Hanoi on April 23.

· Vietnam calls on Ethiopia and Eritrea to settle their border dispute (Nhan dan, p8).

· Law on administrative procedures introduced (Nhan dan, p1).

· The National Assembly Standing Committee’s eighth session: the Government continued with presentation on two projects on the revised laws on value added tax and corporate income tax (Nhan dan, p1).

Socio-economic Affairs

· Attracting 7.5 billion USD in foreign investment in four months (Nhan dan, p1).

· More than 5.4 trillion VND for people in border communes (Quan doi Nhan dan, p1).

· Crude oil price rose to nearly 120 USD per barrel: businesses are in short of capital and face loss (Lao dong, p1).

· Almost all State-owned corporations and groups to be equitised after 2010 (Lao dong, p1).

· Borrowing 1.8 billion USD for building an urban railway (Saigon Giai phong, p2).

· Vietnam ’s one year after WTO entry: infrastructure continues to be developed (Saigon Giai phong, p2).

· A 14 million USD pre-processed steel mill begins operating (Saigon Giai phong, p2).

· Activities of “European Day in Vietnam ” are diverse (Saigon Giai phong, p5).

· Ho Chi Minh City disbursed 400 billion VND to stabilise the prices of essential goods (Ha Noi Moi, p1).

· Initial outcomes of the campaign to call for votes for Ha Long Bay: tourist arrivals to Ha Long Bay rose by nearly 60 percent (Hanoi Moi, p1).

· Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are in short of high quality human resource (Saigon Giai phong, p1).

· Vietnam to register a high mid-term economic growth rate (Thoi bao Ngan hang Vietnam [Vietnam Banking Time], No. 49, p3). IMF Vietnam Office Director Benedic Bingham said so in an interview with the media.

· Ineffective projects must be cut (Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam [Vietnam Economic Time], No. 98, p3). Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc told the media.

· Challenges to urban areas (Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam , No. 98, p5). Urban areas are coping with challenges, including insufficient infrastructure, poor management policies and a high percentage of households living close to the poverty line.

· Spurring the development of export services (Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam , No. 98, p6). The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee has adopted a programme to shift the structure of export lines for the 2008-2010 period and through 2020, targeting to earn an export service value equivalent to 60 percent of the total export value by 2020.

· Prices of second-hand and brand new cars soar (Thoi bao Kinh te Vietnam , No. 98, p14). Many importers could not turn their hand to respond to the new import tariff.

· Public investment must be slashed (Dau tu [Investment], No. 49, p1). Government ministries, sectors and localities are required to have a final say for inefficient projects within nearly a month.

· Banks cannot adjust interest rates themselves (Dau tu, No. 49, p8). Though the Government wants to abolish a regulation on interest rate cap, banks have not yet increased depository interest rates as they did not see any green-light from the State Bank of Vietnam .

· “It is an outrage against the Vietnamese timber industry” (Dau tu, No. 49, p15). Nguyen Ton Quyen, President of the Vietnam Timber and Forestry Product Association, said the author of a story carried by the website of the EIA of the UK and counterpart Telapak of Indonesia provided unclear and incorrect evidence aimed at smearing the Vietnamese timber processing industry.

International Affairs

· Lenin’s 138 th birth anniversary marked in Russia (Nhan dan, p8).

· Oil and rice prices hit new records (Hanoi Moi, p8).

· “Rocketing” oil price drives the world economy into recession (Quan doi Nhan dan, p8).

· US presidential race: Hilary Clinton made a big triumph in Pennsylvania (Nhan dan and Quan doi Nhan dan, p8).

· Russia-Georgia ties: a crisis that is not yet coming to an end (Hanoi Moi, p8).

· Six-party talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula are likely to be resumed in May (Hanoi Moi, p8).

· The Malaysian Prime Minister talked about a possibility to cooperate with the opposition (Saigon Giai phong, p8).

· The US uncovered a nuclear weapon spy for Israel (Hanoi Moi, p8).-Enditem

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