HANOI, Aug 2 (Reuters) – Vietnam is rebounding from the
global slowdown and the government reported economic growth of
6.2 percent in the first half. Still, the southeast Asian
frontier market is seen as risky and opaque for investors.

Sovereign five-year credit default swaps VNGV5YUSAC=R are
trading at a spread of around 230 basis points, or about 85
basis points higher than those of Indonesia and the
Philippines.

HANOI (Reuters) – North Korea on Thursday denounced planned U.S.-South Korean military drills as a grave danger to the region and criticized new U.S. sanctions as “hostile,” urging Washington to focus instead on restarting nuclear weapons talks.

The comments by a North Korean diplomat in Hanoi at Asia’s largest security forum came a day after the United States announced expanded sanctions against the North and two days after Seoul and Washington unveiled plans for joint military exercises.

HANOI (Reuters) – North Korea looks set to escape explicit rebuke at the Asia-Pacific’s biggest security forum on Friday over the sinking of a South Korean warship despite pressure on Pyongyang to make amends.

Diplomats said the March 26 sinking of the warship Cheonan that killed 46 South Korean sailors featured prominently at a meeting in Hanoi of Southeast Asian foreign ministers and their counterparts from China, South Korea and Japan Wednesday.

HANOI (Reuters) – Myanmar’s Southeast Asian neighbours have told the military government they are concerned over whether elections this year will be free and fair, a senior regional diplomat said on Tuesday.

The United States and Britain have said the general election would be illegitimate if the junta denies a role to thousands of political opponents now in prison. Southeast Asia’s top regional bloc, which follows a policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states, has been less critical in public.

ANSEONG, South Korea (Reuters) – Despite living on porridge made from grass during the worst years of a North Korean famine, Kim Il-cheol harboured dreams of playing for the national soccer team.

In 2004, the stocky midfielder set up three goals in a single game to help his team take second in a youth tournament in the coastal province of Kangwon.

SEOUL (Reuters) – Given how crazy North Koreans are about soccer, there was never much doubt in Pyongyang that state TV would air the national team’s games in its first World Cup in 44 years, despite questions abroad whether it had the rights.

For North Korea’s “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il, though, there may be more at stake than national pride.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (Reuters) – The United Nations expects Asia’s developing economies to grow about 7 percent this year but a double-dip recession in the developed world could cut that by up to 1 percentage point, an assistant secretary general said on Monday.

“If there is a double dip then one would have to re-think the growth rates to some extent,” U.N. Assistant Secretary General Ajay Chhibber told Reuters.

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (Reuters) – Thai Prime Minsiter Abhisit Vejjajiva said on Sunday that an emergency decree would remain in place for now, but the situation was calm and an election was possible early next year.

Abhisit, in an interview, also said economic growth in the second quarter could exceed 6 percent and full-year growth could be close to 6 percent. He expected no rush by the central bank to raise rates as that would depend on recovery and inflation.

VINH PHUC, Vietnam (Reuters) – Costantino Sambuy, local head of scooter maker Piaggio, opened a plant in Vietnam last June and faced two risks that beset most foreign investors — a dollar shortage in the banking system and the ever-present threat of devaluation of the local currency.

The first, he says he’s skirted by paying in euros whenever possible for imported parts that go into Piaggio’s stylish, upmarket motorbikes. “We are trying to eliminate the dollar from our process, and it’s working,” he said.