Vietnam's National Assembly on Tuesday approved a bold bureaucratic reform plan that will slash up to a fifth of government bodies, as the country tries to cut costs and improve administrative efficiency.

Vietnam's parliament on Wednesday approved plans for an $8 billion rail link from its largest northern port city to the border with China, boosting links between the two communist-ruled countries

Vietnam will cut one in five public sector jobs and slash billions of dollars from government budgets, after the country's rubber-stamp parliament on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to a radical streamlining drive.

Vietnam's National Assembly on Wednesday approved raising the economic growth target for this year and backed major infrastructure projects, including a rail link to China and the construction of the country's first nuclear power plants.