PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - Sept 25

(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:
THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM
- Hoa Phat Group said it has bought back 20 million shares worth 264 billion dong ($12.7 million), equivalent to a 10-percent stake, of its subsidiary Hoa Phat Steel Co, from arrested bank tycoon Nguyen Duc Kien's ACB Investment Co.

ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:
VIETNAM NEWS
- The government will require a minimum investment of $4 billion for a casino in Vietnam and enterprises engaged in the business will not receive any tax and fee incentives, said the government's draft decree.
- The government has raised 224.7 trillion dong ($10.7 billion) in the domestic bond market so far since September 2009, said the Hanoi Stock Exchange, which oversees the bond market.

HANOI MOI
- Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has requested state oil and gas group Petrovietnam to review and report its ongoing projects since 2006, after the government required it to focus on the core businesses of oil and gas exploration and production, the government said.

TUOI TRE
- Operators of Co.op Mart, a major supermarket chain in Ho Chi Minh City, said they have ceased selling plastic lanterns imported from China after tests found excessive cadmium, a metal causing cancer, in the product.

THANH NIEN
- The International Labour Organisation said it would spend $4.56 million to support the Vietnamese government to maintain sustainable jobs for workers between 2012-2016.
THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM

- Vietnam's retail sales and service revenues in the first nine months of this year rose 17.15 percent from a year earlier to more than 1,710 trillion dong ($82 billion), the General Statistics Office said.

- Trade between Vietnam and Japan jumped 26.5 percent in 2011 from the previous year to $21.18 billion, Vietnam's customs said.

($1=20,850 dong) (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom; Editing by Ram Mohan)