PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - May 15

May 15 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in the official Vietnamese press on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

FINANCIAL NEWS:

THANH NIEN
- Ho Chi Minh City-based banks could post an annual credit growth of just around 10 percent this year, following negative growth in the first four months, said Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy head of the central bank's branch in the city.

THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM
- VietinBank's $250-million five-year dollar bonds to be issued on May 17, which carry an annual coupon of 8 percent, would be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, the Hanoi-based lender said.

ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:

VIETNAM NEWS
- The Health Ministry said the mysterious skin disease that killed 21 people and affected more than 200 people in the central province of Quang Ngai since April 2011 was not transmissible, but officials have not found what caused the disease.

- The government should draft a plan to replant coffee trees and subsidise the costs to ensure the sustainable development of the coffee industry, industry experts said at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday.

NHAN DAN
- Vietnam has for the first time sufficient sugar supply and also a surplus, the Agriculture Ministry said. The country has total sugar supply of 1.57 million tonnes in 2012 and a surplus of 70,000 tonnes.

TUOI TRE
- Malaysia's wind power group Timur signed a memorandum on Monday with the central province of Ninh Thuan to invest $800 million in developing wind power. The province also plans to develop solar energy, Chairman Nguyen Duc Thanh of Ninh Thuan People's Committee said.

- More than 17,700 businesses have shut operations in the first four months of 2012, up 9.5 percent from a year earlier, while the number could hit 50,000 by the year-end, Deputy Planning and Investment Minister Cao Viet Sinh said.

THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM
- Vietnam has exported more than 200,000 tonnes of sugar so far this year, mostly to China, said Chairman Nguyen Thanh Long of the Vietnam Sugar and Sugarcane Association. (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom)