Vietnam Stocks Turn Into World’s Worst Market on Ratings, Dong

By Chen Shiyin and Nguyen Dieu Tu Uyen
May 30 (Bloomberg) — The worst may not be over for Vietnam’s stock market, the world’s biggest decliner, as the stock exchange returns to business after a computer breakdown halted trading for three days.
The benchmark VN Index may extend this year’s 55 percent retreat after a government report [...]

Fitch revises Vietnam outlook to negative

HANOI (AFP) — Credit risk evaluator Fitch Ratings on Thursday lowered the outlook on Vietnam’s BB-minus sovereign rating from stable to negative, calling double-digit inflation “a serious concern for Vietnam”.
The state-run General Statistics Office this week estimated that consumer prices shot up by 25 percent in May year-on-year in the country of 86 million, driven [...]

Hints of a Crisis in Vietnam

There’s trouble brewing in Vietnam, judging by what’s happening to its currency.
The Vietnamese dong is effectively pegged to the dollar and only fluctuates within a very narrow band. However, investors can make bets on its impending direction using forwards, or contracts which allow buyers to purchase a currency at a set price at some future [...]

Tiger poaching ‘on the rise’ in Vietnam

Officials have warned that poaching is still threatening tigers in Vietnam.
The Vietnam News reported that the latest government figures suggest that only around 100 tigers survive in the wild in the country, down from over 300 just a decade ago.
This is despite the fact that tigers have been listed in Vietnam’s Red Book of Endangered [...]

Vietnam’s inflation hits 25.2 percent, highest in a decade, as food, construction costs soar

HANOI, Vietnam: Surging food and construction costs drove Vietnam’s inflation rate to 25.2 percent in May, the highest in more than a decade, the government said Tuesday.
Despite authorities’ efforts to control inflation, including interest rate hikes, consumer prices were 4 percentage points higher than last month, according to the Government Statistics Office.
Vietnam’s inflation rate is among the [...]

Shooting the messenger | The Economist

May 22nd 2008 | BANGKOK
From The Economist print edition
The press fights back as two graft-busting reporters are arrested
THE leaders of Vietnam’s Communist Party say they are conducting a “no holds barred” crackdown on corruption in public life. They implore the country’s newspapers to sniff out and expose the fiddles of officials. In February the party [...]

Vietnam to permit (some) foreigners to own property

25 May 2008
Martha Ann Overland writes from Hanoi:
Vietnam’s National Assembly has voted to allow foreigners to buy property but when it goes into effect next year there will be limits on who is affected and what they can buy.
The resolution passed May 22 limits ownership to foreigners who meet specific residence and professional criteria, according [...]

Unwed pregnant women have a haven in Vietnam

Chitose Suzuki / Associated Press
“Sometimes we have 10 mothers living here . . . sleeping on the floor,” says Phuc.
In a country with one of the highest abortion rates, Tong Phuoc Phuc single-mindedly works to offer options.

From the Associated Press
May 24, 2008
NHA TRANG, VIETNAM — Sitting cross-legged on a straw mat in the middle of [...]

Vietnam to allow foreigners to buy property

Hanoi – Vietnam has passed a law allowing certain categories of foreigners to buy apartments beginning in 2009, the first time the Communist country has allowed non-citizens to own real estate, the government website announced Friday.
The country’s National Assembly approved the new law Thursday, with 88 per cent of deputies voting for it.
Foreigners eligible under [...]

Vietnam warns of hand, foot and mouth disease spreading among children

HANOI, Vietnam: Vietnam has warned health officials nationwide to be on the lookout for an infectious disease that has killed 12 children in the country this year, a health official said Friday.
So far, Vietnam has reported about 2,800 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, a common childhood illness that typically causes little more than a [...]