Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times), a leading business newspaper in the Southeast Asian country, formally suspended its operations on Wednesday after having served readers for nearly three decades.

The paper’s Hanoi-based management body, the Vietnam Economic Association (VEO), abruptly announced their decision to suspend its press operations on Wednesday.

The decision will impact some 180 administrators and journalists employed by the paper.

The association asked the newspaper to follow the proper dissolution procedures to tie up any loose ends by the end of next month.

On June 20, the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications revoked Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam’ press license as part of the country's master plan to overhaul local news media.

Under the plan, laid out in detail in an April 2019 prime minister decision with a vision for 2025, associations such as the VEO will no longer be permitted to have their own papers and can only run magazines.

On June 26, the ministry announced that the VEO would manage a new publication – Tap chi Kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Magazine) — as a successor to Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam.

The decision by VEO to dissolve its newspaper and lay off its staff, therefore, came as a surprise.

The move has reportedly been met with frustration from staffers and reporters.

A source told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the Ministry of Information and Communications will set up a delegation to inspect the dissolution.

Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam was established in 1991 and has since expanded to include a daily print and online news site in Vietnamese, an English-language monthly newspaper, an English-language news site, and several other business publications in both languages.

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