HANOI, Jan 9 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in the official Vietnamese press on Wednesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

FINANCIAL NEWS:

TUOI TRE

-- Fines will be imposed on both buyers and sellers if they trade gold bars at non-licensed agencies or shops from Jan. 10, said Nguyen Hoang Minh, deputy director at the central bank office in Ho Chi Minh City.

THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM

-- The central bank needs to take measures to prevent a worsening of bad debt and to continue the banking system restructure, said Nguyen Phu Trong, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

LAO DONG

-- The Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange may raise the trading band to 7 percent while the Hanoi Exchange could bring it to 10 percent from mid-January, a Ho Chi Minh Exchange executive said.

-- The State Bank of Vietnam said it has licensed five more banks including SeABank, Military Bank, Saigon Hanoi Bank, MHB and Oceanbank and two other companies to trade in gold bars, raising the total number to 38.

ECONOMIC AND GENERAL NEWS:

VIETNAM NEWS

-- The Ho Chi Minh People's Court said it has sentenced a 36-year-old woman to 42 months in prison and 24 months under local authorities' scrutiny for carrying out anti-national propaganda.

TUOI TRE

-- A court in the central province of Nghe An is expected to deliver a verdict on Wednesday against 14 Vietnamese people who are accused of conducting activities to overthrow the regime. The trial of 14 defendants began on Tuesday in Vinh city, while three others are on the warrant list, the indictment said.

THOI BAO KINH TE VIETNAM

-- The transport ministry said it is considering a scheme to issue 57.8 trillion of bonds ($2.8 billion) for upgrades of national highways between 2013 and 2015.

DAU TU

-- The rise in Vietnam's consumer price index this year is forecast to be above the 6.81 percent growth in 2012, but would still be below 10 percent, said Nguyen Loc An, deputy head of the trade ministry's domestic markets department.

($1=20,820 dong)

(Reporting by Hanoi Newsroom; Editing by Jijo Jacob) Keywords: PRESS DIGEST VIETNAM/

(hanoi.newsroom@reuters.com)(+844 3825 9623)

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