(VOV) - Vietnam and Israel should redouble efforts to lift this year’s bilateral trade turnover to US$2 billion from US$1 billion of a year earlier, said chairman of the Party Central Committee's Commission for Economic Affairs Vuong Dinh Hue.

Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung, who will chair the upcoming investment promotion conference in the US on July 1, spoke with VIR about his expectations for a comprehensive and deeper partnership between Vietnam and the US in the finance sector.

The managements of state-owned enterprises that fail to privatize and divest from non-core businesses as ordered this year face "strict" action, a government committee on the restructuring of SOEs said at a recent meeting in Hanoi.

Private enterprises have succeeded with their agricultural investments, but their progress still lags behind their true potential and the demand for development in the sector, a conference was told in Hanoi on June 28.

The Japanese population offers a reliable source of current and future demand for short- and long-term accommodations, with growing interest among Japanese companies to open units in Vietnam.

Land rents are rising too quickly, according to members of the business community who met in Hanoi at a conference entitled "Property Rights and Enterprise Development".

Vietnam's tea producers should meet Fairtrade International's certification standards to increase the competitive quality of tea products and improve their export value, said experts.

Representatives of Vietnamese and South African authorities and businesses came together in Cape Town, South Africa, to explore the potential for investment and tourism in the two countries.

More than 56,000 completely built units (CBUs) of automobiles were imported during the first half of this year, an increase of 30,000 units over the same period last year.

Vietnam and Laos signed an agreement on bilateral border trade in the central province of Nghe An on June 27.

The nation’s natural rubber industry rebounded modestly in May as exports recorded higher prices and volume than April, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

Coffee farming households in five Vietnamese Central Highland provinces have recently benefitted from the project ‘More coffee with less water- towards a reduction of the blue water footprint in coffee production’.

The disbursement of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam in the first half of the year reached US$6.3 billion, up 9.6% from a year ago.

China is expected to import more than US$10 trillion in goods and services and invest US$500 billion abroad in the next five years, offering opportunities for Vietnam and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Prime Minister has ratified Decree 60/2015 to replace Decree 58, which included a long-awaited regulation on removing limits on foreign ownership in listed companies.

(VOV) - Vietnam Ambassador to Mexico Le Linh Lan is part of a contingent of representatives from five ASEAN nations attending a regional trade forum in Queretaro, Mexico to discuss the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement.

(VOV) - Trade between Vietnam and the US has grown exponentially under a bilateral trade pact that went into force in late 2001 and totalled nearly US$11,035 billion as the end of February this year.

The Ho Chi Minh City Infrastructure Investment JSC on June 27 commenced the construction of technical infrastructure at the northern residential quarter and the north-south road in Thu Thiem new urban area.

(VOV) - Exports for the agriculture, forestry and aquatics sector for the six months leading up to July were down 2.8% year-on-year to US$14.42 billion, according to the latest monthly report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

A fair featuring nearly 300 booths on agriculture seeds was opened in Ho Chi Minh City on June 26 with the participation of 120 businesses from across the country.

The second "Online Friday," also known as "Online Shopping Day 2015," will likely record sales worth US$25 million, according to Vietnam E-Commerce and Information Technology Agency.

The Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) coordinated with the State Treasury to launch an online government bond transaction system (E-BTS) on June 26.

A workshop focusing on strengthening business cooperation and boosting exports to the Chinese market was held in Ho Chi Minh City on June 26.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung attended a groundbreaking ceremony on June 26 for a US$450-million project to develop an infrastructure system in Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park on the outskirts of Hanoi.

A dialogue was held on June 26 in Ho Chi Minh City between domestic enterprises working in the city’s export processing and industrial zones and several involved bodies concerning governmental regulation and tax policies.

(VOV) -Vietnam’s foreign direct investment (FDI) fell in the first six months of the year to its lowest level in more than four years, in the latest sign of an increasingly cautious outlook from foreign business.

(VOV) - Vietnam’s rice shipments in the five months leading up to June dipped 10% in volume year-on-year to 2.1 million tonnes valued at US$870 million, according to the Vietnam Food Association (VFA).

Gold prices fell to their lowest level in the last five years in Vietnam on June 25.

Vietnam’s tallest building just one project set to benefit from legal changes allowing foreigners to buy houses in the country.

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and its Kawasaki counterpart from Japan (KCCI) inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on June 25 to boost trade, business and investment between small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).