PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - Aug 20

Aug 20 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in the official Vietnamese press on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

FINANCIAL NEWS:
LAO DONG
- The central bank has approved partly private VPBank to increase credit growth to 30 percent this year after the bank reported first-half loans rose 11.6 percent from the end of 2011.

- Masan Group is allowed to list an additional 172 million new shares on Aug. 21, raising its total number of shares to 687 million, the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange said.

- As of Aug. 16, dong loans with rates above 15 percent in the banking system fell to 24.6 percent of outstanding loans, down as much as 65 percent compared with the ratio prior to July 15, central bank data showed.

THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM
- One of the reasons for the low credit growth of Vietnam's banking system so far this year is that businesses, which have overcome difficulties and reduced inventory, are still reluctant to expand business on fear of further economic fluctuations, a bank executive said.

- The spread between dollar and dong deposit rates now stands at 2 percentage points, and banks cut dong rates, depositors would switch to dollar, which will pressure on the dong, said financial expert Le Xuan Nghia, former deputy head of the National Financial Supervisory Commission.

DAU TU
- The central bank said 23 banks have sought permission to raise their annual credit growth quota, but it has only granted approval to raise the target to 27-30 percent for those lenders which received initial targets of 8-10 percent.

ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:
VIETNAM NEWS (vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn)
- A total 27 people were killed after Typhoon Kai Tak hit northern Vietnam last Friday, damaging more than 6,000 houses, the National Committee for Search and Rescue said.

QUAN DOI NHAN DAN
- The Phu Cat airport in the central province of Binh Dinh has been taken out of the list of dioxin-affected hotspots in Vietnam, after more than 7,000 cubic metres of contaminated soil had been buried, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry said.

HANOI MOI
- Vietnam aims to meet 60 percent of domestic demand for medicine by 2015, while export of the products should rise 10-15 percent annually, the Health Ministry said in a project to boost domestic consumption and production of pharmaceutical products.

DAU TU
- Acquisition activities are booming as leading companies take advantage of other firms' divestment and sales of projects, businessmen said. (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)