VIETNAMESE - The Association of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs has said its members are moving away from open-air stands in favor of brick and mortar stores and are investing in production. The association said individual stands could disappear in the next 10 years, at least partially because the younger generation of Vietnamese is more educated.

HOLIDAY - The senior opposition Civic Democrats have included in their pre-election economic platform a one year tax holiday for the self-employed over the next four years, Hospodářské noviny reported March 23. As a result, the self-employed would see taxes fall 25 percent, but they would not be entitled to any government subsidies. The tax holiday would reportedly take 29 billion Kč from the state budget.

WORK - Austria will only open its labor market to workers from new European Union member states if domestic unemployment falls, Andreas Khol, chairman of the National Council, Austria's lower house of Parliament, said in Slovakia March 23. Austria has 4.8 percent unemployment, one of the lowest rates in the EU. The chairman's comment comes at a time when the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 are pressuring old member states to break down barriers to the free movement of workers in Europe.

RUSSIANS - Thirteen percent more Russian tourists visited the Czech Republic last year than in 2004, putting the total number at 185,000, Regional Development Minister Radko Martínek announced at a tourism exhibition in Moscow March 23. Only the Japanese surpass the Russians as tourists.

E-TOLL - Autostrade, a company that competed in the controversial tender to supply an e-toll system on Czech roads has filed a complaint with the European Commission against the Anti-Monopoly Office's (ÚOHS's) decision to confirm Kapsch of Austria as the winner. The government selected Kapsch in November, but the ÚOHS reviewed the decision because Autostrade and one other suitor, Mytia, said they were unfairly eliminated from the competition. The ÚOHS upheld the legitimacy of the government's selection in January.