VIETNAMESE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTS - APRIL 25, 2008

HANOI, Apr 25, 2008 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) -- -- Highlights of today's newspapers:

ALL DAILIES:

- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi agreed the two countries should accelerate negotiations to ratify a five-year economic cooperation plan. Receiving Yang on April 24, PM Dung said he will instruct relevant Vietnamese agencies to speed up preparations to sign the cooperation plan.

NHAN DAN:

- Attracting US$7.5 billion in foreign investment in four months.

THOI BAO NGAN HANG:

- Vietnam to register a high mid-term economic growth rate. IMF Vietnam Office Director Benedic Bingham said so in an interview with the media.

DAU TU:

- Banks cannot adjust interest rates themselves. 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.

THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM:

- Spurring the development of export services. The Ho Chi Minh City Peoples 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.

NHAN DAN:

- By the end of 2007, the pharmaceutical industry had met 51 per cent of the country's demand for drugs. The result was attributed to efforts to invest in a modern production line and expand distribution networks to the grassroots level. There are now 39,016 pharmacies across the nation, an average of 4.58 pharmacies for every 10.000 people. In the 2008-2010 period, the industry will continue implementing the Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) standards and promote the stockpile of essential drugs.

SAIGON GIAI PHONG:

- The Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee has recently proposed that the Ministry of Planning and Investment receive Japan's ODA loans in the 2008 fiscal year to build two urban metro lines.

(VNA)

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