PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - Oct 8

HANOI, Oct 8 (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.

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VIETNAM NEWS

-- A total of 8,020 inmates are eligible to be given amnesty this year, the Police Ministry said.

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VIETNAM INVESTMENT REVIEW

-- Textile and apparel exports to the United States jumped 25 percent to $2.44 billion in the first seven months of this year from a year earlier, U.S. statistics showed.

-- The state has refused to buy surplus dollars from banks in the past few weeks, forcing them to trade the currency on the interbank market where its value has eased, Asia Commercial Bank deputy general director Nguyen Thanh Toai said.

-- Agribank has signed a memorandum of understanding with Britain's Crop Research Institute and U.S. Merrill Lynch to cultivate high-quality coffee for major processors Starbucks Corp (SBUX.O) and Nestle (NESN.VX) with an investment of $500 million.

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QUAN DOI NHAN DAN

-- Fertiliser prices have risen about 10 percent from September.

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HANOI MOI

-- Floods in the central province of Nghe An were expected to fluctuate at their peak while waters in northern provinces of Ninh Binh and Thanh Hoa were receding slowly, the National Centre for Hydro Meteorology Forecast said.

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SAIGON GIAI PHONG

-- Many workers injured in the Can Tho bridge span collapse are due to be discharged from hospital, doctors said. Recovery teams, meanwhile, have yet to be able to retrieve the body of the last missing person from the debris.

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THANH NIEN

-- On-line gaming could generate revenues of $50 million in Vietnam this year, Vietnam's software association Vinasa said.

-- General Electric (GE.N) chief executive Jeffrey R. Immelt told Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung last month that GE was interested in becoming a strategic partner with state-run Vietcombank. A Vietcombank senior manager said GE was among the bidders in the final round of negotiation for shares in the bank.

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THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM

-- Petrovietnam's financial arm PVFC said it had 2 trillion dong ($123 million) in revenues and a of 631 billion dong ($39 million) in the first nine months. The company has assets of 40 trillion dong ($2.5 billion).

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