Politics 

- Vietnamese top leaders on August 31 laid wreaths at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and the War Martyrs' Monument on the occasion of the National Day (September 2). 

- National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong received Yang Guoliang, Vice Chairman of the Committee for External Affairs of the National People's Congress (NPC) of China in Hanoi on August 31. 

- Lao Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh and his delegation left HCM City in the afternoon of August 31 to conclude their four-day official friendship visit to Vietnam. 

- The Prime Minister of the United Republic of Tanzania, Edward N. Lowassa, will pay an official friendly visit to Vietnam from September 5-8, announced the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry in a communique on August 31. 

- Vietnam did not dump leather-capped shoes in the European market, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry's spokesman Le Dung reaffirmed on August 31. 

- The Malaysian Ambassador to Vietnam Datio A.H. Anuar gave a reception in Hanoi on Aug. 31 to celebrate his country's 49th National Day.

- Ha Thi Khiet, chairwoman of the Vietnam Women's Union and the Vietnam National Committee for the Advancement of Women paid working visit to Germany and the Netherlands from Aug. 22-30. 

- Vietnam has made many laudable achievements in the field of improving the health and living quality of children, especially in reducing the under-five child mortality rate, said Senior Programme Coordinator Maniza S. Zaman of UNICEF Vietnam. 

- Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged the Ministry of Public Security to coordinate with other authorised agencies to soon finish investigations and bring to trial several major economic cases, including the PMU18; the fraud and property appropriation by Nguyen Lam Thai with involvement of some local post offices; the fraud and property appropriation by Nguyen Duc Chi from the Rusalka Project in central Khanh Hoa province; and the abuse of power and bribery of government inspectors at projects of the Vietnam Petroleum Corporation (PetroVietnam). 

Business 

- The State Bank of Vietnam has asked commercial banks to be cautious about giving loans to fund securities trading deals. Banks must follow necessary steps stipulated by the central bank in order to control possible risks. 

- Cuu Long River Delta provinces are planning to develop 175 seafood processing establishments by 2010 that will have the total processing capacity of 1.1mil tonnes a year. By 2010, the provinces hope to gain the total seafood export turnover of $3.8bil. 

- As forecast, gas retailers have decided to raise the selling price by VND3,000/gas tank in September over the previous month. Gas prices keep increasing in the international market. They now stand at $561.5/tonne, up by $14.5/tonne over last month. 

- The State Bank of Vietnam has announced the basic interest rate (to be applied for September) at 8.25% per annum, which sees no change compared to the levels of the previous months. The recapitalisation interest rate is 6.5% per annum. 

- Construction steel mills in the north are facing big difficulties now that 3,000-5,000 tonnes of rolled steel imported from China are selling at the low price of VND7mil/tonne, or VND200-300,000/tonne lower than domestically made steel. The Vietnam Steel Association said that Chinese producers are trying to dump steel products in Vietnam. 

- Coconut prices are skyrocketing in the domestic market, forcing coconut processing workshops in the south to stop operations. Thai and Chinese dealers are now buying dried coconut at VND40,000/10 units, which is unprofitable for local processing workshops. 

- The Vietnam International Joint Stock Bank (VIB) and Bao Viet Securities Company will act as the guarantors for the Electricity of Vietnam’s issuance of VND600bil worth of bonds. The 5-year bonds will have the nominal value of VND100,000/share and the fixed interest rate of 9.6% per annum. 

- The Ministry of Industry is drawing up the list of top-priority and key industries in the period of 2006-2010 which will be encouraged to develop with investment incentives. During 2006-2010, there will be 11 priority and five key industries, and there will be only 6 priority and 5 key industries in the period from 2015-2020. 

- ANZ Bank has decided to issue US$ deposit certificates for the second time in 2006 from September 5 to November 3 after the successful issuance in July. The interest rates will be as follows: 4%, 4.12% and 4.22% per annum for one-month, three-month and six-month terms, and 4.42% for 9-month, 4.75% for 1-year term deposits. 

- Lilama, the general contractor of the Uong Bi thermo power plant, said it would hand over the plant at the end of November 2006. 

- The annual Hanoi International Trade Fair (HanoiExpo 2006) will be organized in Hanoi to welcome the APEC 2006 Summit as well as celebrate the National Day on September 2 and Liberation Day of Hanoi on October 10. Nearly 300 Vietnamese enterprises from fields of key industries, IT, trade and service, tourism, construction, real estate, handicraft, agriculture, high-tech and processing will take part in the trade fair. 

- The government forecast that the country's GDP growth rate this year would reach 8 percent as planned. 

- The Vietnam Fair on International Integration Process - Vietnam Gold Star 2006 opened at the Giang Vo Exhibition Centre in Hanoi on August 31.

- Solutions to help Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adapt to and develop in the context of the country's global economic itegration are being introduced at a Vietnam-Japan round-table conference, which opened in Hanoi on Aug. 31.

- The Vietnam-ASEAN Brands Expo 2006, the first of its kind in Vietnam, opened in the evening of August 31. One hundred Vietnamese enterprises will introduce their Vietnam High Quality Award products beside 50 brand names from Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Lao and Cambodia.

- An international construction material and decoration expo, Inter - Deco 2006, opened at the Melinh Plaza construction material and decoration facilities centre in Hanoi on Aug. 31. Over 300 domestic and foreign enterprises are displaying their products of construction materials and decoration facilities on 50,000sq.m. with information and samples of models from 50 countries and territories.

- Vietnam and the Ukraine have agreed to create more favourable conditions for businesses of the two sides to boost cooperation, with the aim of increasing the two-way trade value to $1 billion in the near future.

Social 

- Vietnam Airlines plans to refuse serving the passenger who joked that his luggage had a bomb, but this act may violate the citizen’s liberal travel rights, said some lawyers. 

- Hundreds of motorbikes in central Da Nang City are also reported to have rubber parts of their carburetors swollen. Most of those motorbikes took gasoline from filling stations of the Military Petroleum Company’s Da Nang Branch.  

- The Electronics – IT – Chemical Company (Elinco) under the Ministry of Defence has said it will invest VND230 billion ($14.375mil) in building an underground carpark under the Bach Tung Diep Park in HCM City. 

- Security forces at HCM City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport on August 29 found a gun in the luggage of a passenger of Latvian nationality. Police have temporary held this passenger to determine the origin of the gun and the reason the passenger put it in his luggage. 

Lifestyle, Travel & Sports 

- Local moviegoers should make it to a free French detective film programme to be held in Hanoi from September 1 to October 6. Six famous French-made detective movies shot in the past 20 years will be screened: These films include Temporary Detention, L.672, Octopus, Crime Scenes, Sand Trader and The Little Lieutenant. 

- A photo exhibition opened at the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology in Hanoi on August 31, displaying more than 6,000 photos taken by people living in the old quarter. The month-long exposition is part of a pilot project on "Sustainable Development of Hanoi's Old Quarter" jointly conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Hanoi City People’s Committee. 

- Vietnam has sent a delegation to attend the first Asian Fine Arts Museum Directors Forum, which opened in Beijing, China on August 31.  

- The newly crowned Miss Vietnam 2006, Mai Phuong Thuy, will not be able to leave for the Miss World pageant until September 6, three days late in comparison to other competitors. Therefore, Thuy will not have chance to participate in many activities organised for the pageant.  

- On September 3 at Gallery Suffusiveart, 2B Ngoc Khanh St., Hanoi, an exhibition of paintings by a young artist, Truong Tien Tra, focusing on the subject of homosexuality will be opened. 12 paintings on the subject will be showcased. Two additional exhibitions by the artist on the same topic have been scheduled to be held in 2007 and 2008. 

- Vietnamese living in Tokyo and Osaka who are interested in Vietnamese films can enjoy Me Thao Thoi Vang Bong (The Glorious' Time in Me Thao Hamlet), and Ai Xuoi Van Ly (Who Travels a Thousand Miles?) playing from September 25-29. Directors Le Hoang and Pham Hoang Nam are expected to go to Tokyo and Osaka to talk about similarities in Japanese and Vietnamese films. 

- An exhibition of Australian contemporary porcelain art themed “the mysterious history of the blue and white colour” will be organised at the Vietnam Nam Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi from September 12 to 26.  

- Binh SVC Company's in the southwestern province of Phu Yen on August 31 presented before the public a lamp made of coconut dipper, which is expected to be the biggest of its kind in Vietnam. Named the "Vietnamese Light," the 7 metre-high lamp has a body of 3.6m with its widest diameter of 2.55m. The lampshade is 3.4m high with its widest diameter of 3m.

- One thousand tourists and crew members arrived aboard the luxury cruise ship Superstar Gemini, which docked in HCM City Friday. During their stay in the city they will visit popular tourist sites like the Museum of War Remnants, Ben Thanh Market, and the Municipal Theatre, among other places. On September 4, the ship will set off for central Vietnam to visit Hue, Hoi An and Danang. 

- During the week of APEC events, a great deal of tours will be organised for all delegates and their spouses to the APEC CEO Summit 2006 and the Doing Business with Vietnam Forum 2006, said organisers. 

Sci-tech, Health & Environment 

- The Ministry of Defence’s working group has asked the ministry to allow two farmers in southern Tay Ninh Province to perform pilot flights of a helicopter that they manufactured themselves. 

- A new made-in-Vietnam virus began to spread very quickly in Vietnam through Yahoo Messenger on Thursday. This virus was released into the Internet five days ago but it began to spread strongly on the afternoon of August 31. 

- Hanoi’s St. Paul Hospital carried out plastic surgery on a 26-year-old woman with breasts stretching past her navel on August 30. 

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