Vietnam balks on advertising curbs

Vietnam balks on advertising curbs

HANOI (AP): Intense pressure from foreign investors has forced Vietnam to retreat from a plan to cap spending on advertising by foreign companies, state-controlled media reported yesterday.

A plan to impose new advertising limits on foreign companies was to be unveiled this week, but has instead been shelved, the English-language Vietnam Investment Review reported.

The Ministry of Finance was aiming to limit spending for advertising by foreign companies to 2 percent of their total budgets.

Pressure from foreign investors forced the ministry to maintain the current 5 percent limit, the newspaper reported.

The plan originally had been proposed to level the playing field between foreign and Vietnamese companies, whose advertising budgets are more limited.