Vietnam draws up e-commerce strategy plan HANOI - Vietnam's state telecoms monopoly has submitted an e-commerce development plan to the government for approval, official media reported on Tuesday. The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) quoted officials at Vietnam Post and Telecommunications (VNPT) as saying that in an effort to boost electronic business the cost of Internet subscription would be cut from 290 dong ($0.02) per minute. VNA gave no details on the e-commerce plan, or when Internet charges would be lowered and by how much. Vietnam had only some 50,000 Internet subscribers out of a population of 79 million people, the news agency added. The country's communist authorities, wary of unfiltered information, have yet to wholeheartedly endorse the Internet. Access to many websites -- especially pages viewed as having reactionary political content such as those operated by anti-communist overseas Vietnamese groups -- is blocked. Reuters - January 17, 2000.