B: As of August 5, floods and landslides had resulted in 9 peoplekilled,12 others injured, and 24 people missing in Lai Chau, Dien Bien, Yen Bai, Son La and Cao Bang province. 
A: The Central Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention and Control has estimated losses in damaged houses and infrastructure and submerged food crops to be as high as 41 million USD. Over 13,700 cubic meters of earth and rock were eroded on national highways while floods washed away several km of provincial roads, isolating many communes.

Landslide blocks a provincial road in Yen Bai

B:In a spirit of haves helping have-nots, humanitarian organizations, state agencies and companies, and private organizations have raised money to help disaster victims recover production and stabilize their lives. At VOV, each of us donated at least one day’s salary.

A temporary road is being built crossing the river

A: I’m reading an email from Pravotorov Kostiantyn of Ukraine, who listened to VOV’s English program on August 2 on the frequency of 7280 khz and rated SINPO at 35343.

B: Mr. Kostiantyn wrote: “I have had the great pleasure of logging in to your station and sending you my reception report. Would you be kind enough to send me your QSLcard, with the image of Long Bien Bridge designed by French architect Gustave Eiffel.

A: We're very sorry that we've checked with the Listeners' service, they're running out of that design. We'll recommend them to reprint the old ones or design new QSL cards. From India Atish Bhattacharya emailed us a reception report for the broadcast on Tuesday, August 1^st at 19h00 UTC on the frequency of 7280 KHz.

A: We are very pleased to know that the transmission was good. Atish wrote: ‘VOV’s English language broadcast was very strong, steady, loud, and clear. The signal strength was excellent. Interference was nil. There was no noise. Very slight propagation fading was present. Overall quality of reception was very good. The SINPO rating was 55544. I was glad to receive your satisfactory signal quality. Please keep up the good work.”

B: Atish continued: “The VOV English Section is one of my favorite radio stations of all time. The main reasons for my fondness for VOV are its informative and entertaining contents, its up-to-date news on events and international relations among the Southeast Asian countries, its wonderful Vietnamese music, and its regular stories about Vietnam’s rich culture.” Atish said he also appreciates the presenters’ attractive, careful, responsible way of hosting the shows, the good correspondence with listeners, and the quality of shortwave reception.

A: Thank you very much, Atish, for your compliment. It’s an encouragement for us to further improve our program. We’ve listened to your recording of our program and we surely will send you a QSL card to confirm your report.

B: We continue to receive emails from Richard Nowak on a weekly basis.  Richard said VOV’s show came in perfect on 7315 kHz from 0:00 to 0:27 UTC. He rated SINPO at all 5.

Kayaking in Ha Long bay

A: Richard wrote: “I loved the segment on kayaking on The Sunday Show! World News mentioned the UN sanctions on North Korea, the 72^ndAnniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bombing and representatives from 80 countries attending the ceremony. This is a moment of reflection. I hope Mr. Kim was paying attention to the ceremonies in Hiroshima.”

B: About the Sunday Show, he wrote: “Enjoyed the tourism activities in Ha Long Bay, a World Heritage Site. The kayak trip sounded realistic and great! It made me want to go out on the kayak. The birds flying overhead, fish in the water, sound of the water all sounded great! The island with its monkeys sounds like a paradise. Would like to kayak there one day. I enjoy kayaking as much as my 18-year-old dog does. The show was informative, educational, and fun.”

Monkey island in Ha Long Bay

A: We hope one day you’ll visit Vietnam and we can welcome you to our office in Hanoi. Until then, please keep on listening to our broadcasts for up-to-date information about Vietnam.

B: Our listeners say that through VOV they’ve learned a lot about Vietnam’s industrialization and modernization policy. They want to know about Vietnam’s mineral resources, mining industry,and its environmental impacts.

A: Vietnam is relatively rich in mineral resources. More than 5,000 deposits of more than 60 types of minerals have been discovered, including 7% of the world’s reserves of bauxite, rare earths, 30% of the world’ ssupply of tungsten, titanium, phosphate, coal, iron ore, and construction minerals.

B: Nui Phao is the world’s largest fluorite mine, accounting for 6-7% of the total global supply of fluorspar. Coal reserves, located mainly in the North, have been estimated at 20 billion tons. However, with the exception of coal and tungsten, all mining operations in Vietnam are small or medium in scope.

A: In 2015 mining and quarrying was the third biggest contributor to GDP and enjoyed a high growth rate of 8.15%. Petroleum and coal are Vietnam’s main mineral exports. Oil is being exploited by the Vietnam Oil and Gas Corporation, PetroVietnam, while Vinacomin is a state-owned giant in charge of exploiting Vietnam’s mineral and coal resources.

B: This week we acknowledge letters from Shahinur Alam of Bangladesh, Miss Sonali Yadav, Debakamal Hazarika, and Arun Kumar of India, and Andrew Kuznetsov of Latvia. We’ll verify your reception reports soon.

A: Our street address is: English Section, Overseas Service, Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Our email address is englishsection@vov.org.vn. Thank you for listening. Please join us again next Wednesday for another Letter Box edition. Goodbye.