PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - Dec 28

HANOI | Dec 28, 2011

HANOI Dec 28 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in the official Vietnamese press on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

FINANCIAL NEWS:

LAO DONG

-- The central bank has licensed the Saigon Commercial Bank, an entity formed by the merger of three domestic banks, to open on Jan. 1, 2012. The lender has registered capital of 10.58 trillion dong ($503 million).

-- BIDV, the country's second-biggest bank by assets, said 16,238 investors had registered to buy a combined 140.87 million BIDV shares, 66.2 percent above the offered volume.

ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:

VIETNAM NEWS

-- Vietnam's two stock markets in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City will be merged in the 2012-2015 period, the Finance Ministry said. Details would be available in the first quarter of next year.

LAO DONG

-- The economy in Hanoi grew 10.1 percent this year, the city's statistics office said.

THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM

-- The import duty on petrol may be imposed at 4 percent, from zero now, the Finance Ministry said, asking oil product distributors to keep their sale prices unchanged.

-- Vietnam's tourism industry has set a revenue target of 150 trillion dong ($7.13 billion) next year, up 15.3 percent from 2011, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism said.

DAU TU

-- A domestic venture has started building a $250 million fertiliser plant in the northern province of Lao Cai with annual output of 330,000 tonnes of diammonium phosphate. The Vietnam National Chemical Group owns a 51 percent stake in the venture. (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom)