Crude prices creep back towards $56 mark
Vienna: Crude prices inched towards the $56 barrel mark ahead of a meeting between US President George W Bush and Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah

According to analysts, a rash of refinery outages in the United States and Venezuela underpinned the bullish market, along with stronger than expected stock draws on crude and a perception that neither producers nor oil companies were willing to go beyond present measures to bring prices down.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up by 42 cents at $55.81 a barrel by late morning in Europe. Heating oil was up by nearly a penny at $1.5528 a gallon, while unleaded gasoline also rose by close to a cent to $1.6600 a gallon (3.8 litres).

In London, Brent crude was up 48 cents at $55.45 on the International Petroleum Exchange.
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Vietnam set to become economic powerhouse
Ho Chi Minh City: Thirty years after the fall of Saigon, teetering on the edge of near-economic collapse, Vietnam has turned the corner after opening up its economy to the world in the mid-1980s.

Private enterprise, a young population and increasing ties with the overseas Vietnamese community are helping fuel the country's rapid march toward prosperity. With a 7.7 per cent growth rate, second in Asia after China, Vietnam is all set to be an economic powerhouse in the making.

The country's initial boost in embracing economic reforms, known as "doi moi," in 1986 has given way to a second wave of growth brought on by surging domestic growth and new markets abroad.

Their former enemy, the US, has been an especially important market after the historic trade pact in 2001. About six billion US dollars in exports went to the US market alone.

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is now the economic engine for Vietnam's growth, accounting for forty per cent of the country's GDP, 58 per cent of its industrial output, and 70 per cent of its exports, along with its neighbouring southern provinces.

The country's domestic private sector got a major shot in the arm with the passage of the enterprise law in 2000, designed to make it easier to start individual businesses. In the past five years, an estimated 140,000 private businesses have sprung up, a testament to its vigorous domestic growth.

Private companies account for one-fifth of the nation's total GDP, but they are virtually the only sources for job creation, a key factor in a country where one million young people join the workforce each year.
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