What you need to know in Vietnam today:

Politics

-- Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh on Thursday called on Cambodia’s administration and competent agencies to provide support for Vietnamese nationals living in the country and ensure their legitimate rights and interests at a regular press briefing in Hanoi, which was in response to reporters’ queries about Vietnam’s protection of its citizens following Cambodia’s plan to relocate about 1,000 Vietnamese households along Tonle Sap (Great Lake).

-- Vietnam demands that Thailand promptly investigate and strictly punish individuals involved in Thai marine police’s recent fatal shootings of Vietnamese fishing boats, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said at a regular press conference in Hanoi on Thursday. Vietnam also asks the Thai government to make an apology and pay compensation for the property and human losses of the Vietnamese fishermen and promise not to let such violence recur, Binh added.

-- More than 100 representatives from state agencies and embassies of European Union member states in Vietnam, foreign experts and religious dignitaries gathered at a seminar in Hanoi on Thursday to discuss policies and laws ensuring belief and religious freedom in the Southeast Asian country, focusing on contributions of religions to national construction.

Society

-- The productivity of Vietnamese workers last year increased 4.9 percent year on year to reach VND74.7 million ($3,350) per person per annum, according to a report the Ministry of Planning and Investment has submitted to the government for finding measures to boost the productivity. With an annual growth rate of 3.7 percent in the 2007-12 period, and if the productivity of workers in Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand continue to grow at a pace similar to how they fared in the five-year period, it will take Vietnam 23 years and 54 years to catch up with the Philippines and Thailand, according to the report.

-- The Vietnamese Embassy in Algeria is keeping a close watch on a recent case of Vietnamese workers being abused by Chinese employers in the African nation and will take appropriate measures to ensure the legitimate rights and interests of the workers, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  

Business

-- Vietnam's currency, the dong, has continued to strengthen against the U.S. dollar this week following the central bank's recent regulations on tightening foreign currency transactions and cutting dollar deposit rates for both individuals and organizations. Commercial banks started adjusting the exchange rate early this week, many days after keeping a cap of VND22,475 per dollar regulated by the State Bank of Vietnam on August 19.

-- Job recruiter Anphabe and market research firm Nielsen Vietnam have launched the Vietnam Best Places to Work 2015 survey, the only poll in Vietnam designed to measure and support organizations in improving their brand effectively.