Because of a lack of workers and materials, Vietnam will be unable to attain its 2010 target export turnover of $1.5 billion in handicrafts. The country's craft business must now import 50% of their rattan and bamboo to keep their export contracts. The price of rattan and bamboo have nearly doubled in the past year.

With the benefit of both Vietnam and China in mind, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a plan to complete the economic corridor of Lang Son-Ha Noi-Hai Phong-Quang Ninh to 2020. The corridor is expected to raise the GDP of the cities in the corridor to at least 1.2 times the national average. Included in the plans are a six-lane expressway linking Ha Noi with Huu Nghi Quan and a highway linking Noi Bai international airport with Ha Long City.

Vietnam's GDP expanded at 6.5 percent in the first half of the year, down from 7.9 percent in the same period in 2007, the slowest pace in at least seven years.

Donald J Trump, President of the Miss Universe Organization, announced that the 57th Annual Miss Universe competition will air live from Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa, Vietnam.

Vietnam's Prime Minister plans to visit U.S. officials to discuss measures to curb inflation. The Prime Minister plans to meet with President George W. Bush and former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, among others.

An IMF official stated that economic troubles in Vietnam showed the dangers of slow policy response but said the risk of contagion from the country's problems into the rest of the region was low.

Vietnam's prime minister began a visit to the United States on Monday, hoping to gain some economic tips to ease soaring inflation at home.

Stocks tumbled amid concern that Vietnam is headed for a currency crisis triggered by soaring inflation. The benchmark stock index has slumped 60 percent this year.

Vietnam lifted its ban on rice export deals. The Vietnamese government said they will limit the export of rice to 3.5 million tonnes for the first nine months of this year. And in a government-to-government deal valued at $564 million, the Philippines purchased 600,000 tonnes of rice from Vietnam.

Former Vietnam Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet, who is best known for the economic reforms he largely started in the late 1980s, died Wednesday at the age of 85. In his role as a politician in the late 1980s, Kiet was a leader in moving Vietnam on the path to market-oriented reforms known as “doi moi” (renewal), which were begun to replace the failed system that had been built on the Soviet model.