PRESS DIGEST - Vietnam newspapers - Sept 18

(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
- Many banks will fail to reach their target of raising their registered capital this year due to the unfavourable stock market and difficulties in seeking strategic partners, bankers said.

- Vietnam will raise the average housing area per capita to 25 square metres by 2020, according to a construction ministry plan.

- State-owned enterprises based in Ho Chi Minh City reported a combined revenue of 81.98 trillion dong ($3.93 billion) in the first eight months of this year, down 23.94 percent from a year earlier, Le Ngoc Thuy Trang, head of the city's corporate finance department, said.

ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:
VIETNAM NEWS (vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn)
- Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will visit China during Sept. 20-21 to attend an ASEAN-China exhibition and the ASEAN-China business and investment summit in Nanning.

- Commodity prices are expected to rise 5-15 percent in October following higher costs of petrol, gas and other items, supermarket operators in Ho Chi Minh City said.

QUAN DOI NHAN DAN
- Two people were swept away by flash floods late last week in the coffee-growing province of Dak Nong, rescue forces in the province said.

TUOI TRE
- Researchers at Japan International Cooperation Agency have proposed that Vietnam builds two high-speed railway segments -- the 300-km Hanoi-Vinh and 370-km Ho Chi Minh City-Nha Trang -- at a combined cost of $21.4 billion.

- The finance ministry has been seeking a mechanism to attract domestic and foreign investors to buy state-owned companies' bad debt through its Debt and Asset Trading Corp, said Dang Tien Quyet, deputy head of the ministry's corporate finance department. (Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom; Editing by Jijo Jacob)