http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacif...099416.stm

Vietnam holds high-profile lawyer
Le Cong Dinh
Mr Dinh defended pro-democracy activists

Vietnamese authorities have arrested a high-profile lawyer for allegedly conspiring against the government.

Le Cong Dinh, 41, one of Vietnam's most respected lawyers, has defended a number of pro-democracy activists.

He was alleged to have been found with a copy of a new constitution he wrote aiming to replace the current one.

The police said they will charge Mr Dinh with Article 88 of the Vietnam's Criminal Code for distributing anti-government materials.

http://thanhniennews.com/business/?catid=2&newsid=49603

Vietnam may need to raise rates to support currency, IMF says



Vietnam may need to increase interest rates to bolster a weakening currency and slow credt growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told government officials yesterday.

The IMF and the World Bank, in remarks Monday at a conference in the Central Highlands town of Buon Ma Thuot, also suggested that Vietnam phase out subsidies to bank lending as “rapid” credit growth threatens to stoke inflation.

The State Bank of Vietnam’s benchmark interest rate has been held at 7 percent since February, after being cut from 14 percent in October. The Vietnamese dong traded Monday at VND17,789 per dollar, down from VND17,483 at the end of 2008.

While focusing Vietnam’s monetary policy on supporting growth earlier in the year was warranted, moves such as the cutting of rates, an easing of fiscal policy and an interest-rate subsidy program may jeopardize the nation’s economic stability, the IMF said.

“Some tightening of monetary policy is needed to rein in credit growth, which has started to increase again, and provide greater support to the dong,” the IMF said.

“This tightening would best initially be achieved by monetary operations to rein in dong liquidity and through an accelerated phasing out of the current interest subsidy schemes,” the Washington-based agency said. “But an adjustment in policy rates may be needed if credit expansion continues to accelerate.”

2010 Endeavour Awards for Research, Postgraduate study or research, Vocational education and training, Professional Development and Student Exchanges

The Endeavour Awards is an internationally competitive, merit-based program providing opportunities for citizens of the Asia-Pacific region to undertake study, research and professional development in Australia. Awards are also available for Australians to do the same abroad.

Major foreign banks in Vietnam have expressed concern to the country's central bank over the threatened criminal prosecution of several ABN Amro Holding NV staff in connection with a currency- trading dispute, a development that has tainted the reputation of this fast-growing economy.

The dispute involves almost 600 foreign-exchange transactions between the Haiphong branch of state-owned Industrial & Commercial Bank of Vietnam, known as Incombank, and the Hanoi branch of ABN Amro. Vietnamese police accuse four Vietnamese staffers at the Dutch bank of complicity with Incombank currency traders, who lost more than $5 million in a series of transactions between April 2003 and February 2006.

Have Vietnam country funds finally proven themselves? A dozen years ago a handful of first movers jumped into the communist government's evolving economy - and were burnt as reforms stuttered.

The early fund managers admired the potential that entrances so many visitors, but had to tangle with immature corporations, confused functionaries and the lack of a formal stock market.

Within the last three years, a new generation of more carefully targeted country funds have surged in value as investors discovered the last "Confucian" society to join the global economy.