Tuoi Tre News briefs you on some of the leading stories published today in Vietnamese media:

Politics

-- Admiral Nguyen Van Hien, Deputy Minister of Defense and Vietnam People’s Navy Commander, on Thursday hosted a reception in Hanoi for Ray Mabus, visiting Secretary of the Navy of the United States, underlining the increased cooperation between the two nations in defense, particularly between their navies, over the past years.

-- The signing and implementation of a free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) will be a great and important step as it will raise the relationship between Vietnam and EEU members to a new level, said Foreign Ministry Spokesman Le Hai Binh at a regular press conference in Hanoi on Thursday. Binh’s statement is an answer to a reporter’s question relating to the conclusion of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Vietnam and the coming FTA discussed during his visit.  

Society

-- Thirty leading Vietnamese and Italian universities on Thursday joined a conference organized by the Italian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education and the Vietnamese Embassy in Rome to explore opportunities for training partnerships.

-- Nguyen The Thao, chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, on Thursday asked the municipal Department of Construction to continue its field survey to chop down decayed trees that can fall down anytime during the coming rainy season, pursuant to a plan approved by the authorities at the end of last year. The plan, implemented for the first time in March, was suspended after local people and media found that many healthy and well-grown trees were felled on many main streets in the capital city.

Business

-- The Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) has targeted VND164.6 trillion (US$7.62 billion) in revenue for the second quarter of 2015 following a turnover of VND132.2 trillion ($6.12 billion) in the first quarter.

-- The Asia Commercial Bank will be the latest bank to join the wave of mergers and acquisitions among local joint-stock commercial banks and finance companies, a major trend in the banking sector following the direction of the State Bank of Vietnam in 2015.

-- Many exhibitions of the garment and cosmetics industries kicked off in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday, including the 2015 Vietnam Saigon Garment & Accessories Machinery Expo (Saigon Tex 2015), a platform for both domestic and foreign enterprises to seek partnership and promote their brands and products, at the Tan Binh Exhibition and Convention Center in Tan Binh District.

-- Foreign investment has helped drive industrialization and modernization in Vietnam via the supply of capital and technology and contributions to the state budget, Nguyen Huy Hoang, from the National Center for Socio-Economic Information and Forecast under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said in a conference in Hanoi on Thursday. Foreign-invested enterprises make up two-thirds of the nation’s export revenue and have created three million jobs in the country, he said.