A: We have continued to receive Season Greetings from our listeners around the world. We received a beautiful greeting card from Robert Krolikowski of the US. He sent us a Christmas card with warm wishes for Christmas and New Year 2019 despite health issues and grief at his mother’s passing away.

B: Thank you, Mr. Krolikowski, for your New Year wishes. We sympathize with your loss and wish you all the best of luck, health and happiness in the New Year. We look forward to your continued feedback on our programs.

A: We received Christmas greetings from Richard Nowak of the US, who at the same time sent us emails commenting on our broadcasts. Thank you, Mr. Nowak. We hoped you have received our New Year Greeting card.

B: We’d like to welcome John Snarr of the US. In his first letter to VOV, John sent us a photo of his radio room and a reception report for the program on December 13 on the frequency of 7315 khz, with SINPO all 5s.

A: Thank you, Mr. Snarr, for tuning in to VOV. We’ll send you our frequency list and program schedule, as well as a QSL card to confirm your report. Our program is also available on the internet at vovworld.vn and via our mobile app VOV Media. But do tune in to our shortwave broadcast. We appreciate your reports. Once again, thank you.

B: This week we received a letter from Jyrki Hytonen of Finland. In his letter, he expressed his joy at listening to our broadcast, which he said helped increased his knowledge of Vietnam. He also told us that he likes Vietnamese coffee and that many tourists from Finland visit Vietnam.

A: Thank you, Mr. Hytonen, for writing again to us after nearly a year. We hope you’ll send us your feedback more often and we hope to see you one day in Vietnam.

Son Doong cave in Quang Binh draws a lot of tourists

B: You’re so right to say that the number of tourists including Finns coming to Vietnam has increased. More than 15 million foreigners visited Vietnam last year and there were more than 80 million domestic travelers, generating nearly 27 billion USD in tourism revenue.

A: The number of foreign tourist arrivals has surged three-fold since 2010. The remarkable growth reflects the great efforts made by all players in the sector, particularly the large network of local travel agencies and strategic tourism investors nationwide.

B: In recent years, popular holiday destinations like Ha Long, Phu Quoc, and Da Nang have promoted Vietnamese tourism to foreigners becoming the main drivers of the industry’s growth.

A: In 2018 Vietnam won several international awards recognizing it as a safe and friendly destination. Vietnam was named “Asia’s Leading Destination” for the first time at the 2018 World Travel Awards in Hong Kong in September. Two months later it was named “Asia’s best golf destination in 2018” at the Golf World Travel Awards.

B: In early December, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved the establishment of a state-run tourism development fund worth about 13 million USD to develop plans, finance tourism promotion activities, and boost tourism growth. This year Vietnam expects to accommodate 18 million foreign tourists.

A: The Prime Minister has approved a project to restructure the industry, make it a spearhead economic sector and make Vietnam one of the most developed tourism nations in Southeast Asia. The project has set a target of 45 billion USD in tourism revenue to contribute more than 10 percent of GDP, create 6 million jobs, and serve 32 million foreign tourists by 2025. 

Ha Long Bay is seen from Thien Cung cave

A: Gerry Neumann of the UK told us that he has received our New Year gifts: “Dear friends, I wish all the staff of VOV a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2019. Then, a most sincere thank you for the lovely surprise I had when the postman came this morning with not one or two, but three gifts from you: A VOV Tshirt, a cap, and a beautiful hand embroidered picture of Ha Long Bay, Truly a wonderful start of the New Year for me, for which I can’t thank you enough. I look forward to another year of interesting, informative broadcasts from VOV.”

B: Gerry, it’s great to know that you’re fine and enjoying a Happy New Year with our gifts. We hope to hear more from you.

A: We’d like to welcome another new listener, Mr. Mularam Gadhveer of India. He wrote: “I’m a new listener. I wish you all the best wishes for the New Year 2019. I open your website every day. I feel very happy. We listen to news and other information about Vietnam on the website. You should organize a quiz for your listeners to strengthen friendship among listeners and between listeners and your station.”

B: Thank you, Mr. Gadhveer, for tuning in to VOV and for your suggestions. We organize a contest called “What do you know about Vietnam” every five years to test listeners’ understanding of Vietnam after listening to our broadcasts. The next contest will be held in 2020. We appreciate your suggestion of organizing a quiz more frequently to link VOV listeners.

A: Mr. Siddahartha Bhattacharjee listened to our broadcast from 16:00 to 16:30 UTC on the frequency of 7280 khz and asked about cancer in Vietnam.

B: In 2018, according to VNExpress, more than 25,000 Vietnamese people were diagnosed with liver cancer, the most common cancer in Vietnam, surpassing lung cancer, which saw 23,000 new cases. 

A: Dr. Pham Xuan Dung, director of the HCMC Hospital of Oncology, said liver cancer has overtaken lung cancer for the first time in history as the most common type of cancer in Vietnam.

B: Dung, citing a 2018 report by the international cancer database GLOBOCAN, said more than 25,000 Vietnamese died of liver cancer and more than 20,000 died of lung cancer.

A: In Vietnam, the cancer risk for men is three times higher than that for women. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that without rapid action, the number of people carrying the hepatitis virus will soon increase.

B: Liver cancer in Vietnam is increasing rapidly and mortality is high due to a shortage of the hepatitis B vaccine. People fail to screen for liver cancer periodically, even people with high risk factors such as hepatitis B or C or alcoholism. 

A: We’d like to acknowledge an email from Martin Smith of the UK, who said he received our New Year calendar and hung it in his apartment, triggering some great conversations about it with his friends. This week, we received letters and emails from Ratan Kumar Paul and Najim Uddin of India.  

B: We welcome your feedback at: English Service, VOVWORLD, the Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Or you can email us at: englishsection@vov.org.vn. You’re invited to visit us online at vovworld.vn, where you can hear both live and recorded programs. Check out our VOV Media App available on both the IOS and Android platform to hear our live broadcasts. We look forward to your feedback on the mobile version of vovworld.vn. Once again, thank you all for listening. Goodbye until next time.