B: He was particularly concerned about hurricane Dorian, which forced thousands of people to flee the Bahamas. Richard told us: “There are many places accepting donations here on the Treasure Coast of Florida for the Bahamas. These are private organizations and businesses. Boats, ships and planes pick up the donated goods and transport these to the Bahamas. I donated bottled water, tuna fish, and dog treats yesterday. Fort Pierce to Freeport is only 194 kilometers. I feel sorry for the Bahamians who had to undergo a Category 5 hurricane for 40 hours.”
 Hurricane Dorian leaves trail of destruction in Bahamas. (photo: Global News) |
A: We are sorry for the victims and hope they will soon return to normal lives. The UN's World Food Program said more than 75,000 people could need food and other aid in the Bahamas. Aerial video of the worst-hit Abaco Islands in the northern Bahamas showed widespread devastation, with the harbour, shops, workplaces, a hospital, and airport landing strips damaged or decimated, frustrating rescue efforts.
B: Richard and other listeners are particularly interested in stories about Vietnam’s culture and life. He said the Sunday Show had an interesting program about a festival that shows the respect of the living for the deceased. The festival is held every 5 to 10 years, depending on the economic situation of the area. The festival is a reminder to the younger generations to pay respect to their ancestors. The villagers wear traditional costumers and play traditional musical instruments of the festival.
 VOV's website seen on a smart phone |
A: Eti Mone, President of VOV5’s Listners’ Forum in Bangladesh, told us that he listened to our shortwave program on 7220khz and also tuned in to our programs on the Internet. He was interested in the cultural news about VOV artists receiving high honors and a Food Delight segment introducing a typical Italian Sunday lunch.
B: On our website, we have audio programs of both shortwave and local FM broadcasts, which cover more domestic news, cooking tips for Vietnamese and foreign dishes, suggestions of places to go and things to do in Vietnam, expat life, and other countries’ festivals in Vietnam.
A: We hope you’ll visit our website frequently and give us more feedback. We’ll send you a QSL card to confirm your shortwave reception report.
 VOV's Overseas service broadcasts in 13 languages. |
B: Karniz Fatema Sanu of Bangladesh asked us about the number of internet users in Vietnam. The Ministry of Information and Communications’ reported last year that Vietnam had about 60 million internet users, equivalent to 60% of its population, and ranked 16th in the world for greater number of internet users.
A: The figures released by the Ministry indicated that, on average, a Vietnamese person spends 7 hours per day on the internet and nearly 4 hours per day on Facebook.
B: Youtube was the second most visited website, with 45 million people visiting it each month. Next was Zalo, a Vietnamese messaging app, with 40 million users per month. Launched in 2012, Zalo is Vietnam’s premier chatting platform, with more than 100 million users worldwide.
A: Search engine Google still holds over 95% of the Vietnamese market share. Vietnam has some domestic search tools such as Vinaseek, Socbay, Xalo, and Monava, but they can’t compete with Google.
B: A made-in-Vietnam social network called Lotus made its debut this week with an ambitious plan to attract four million users a day. With the motto “Content is King”, the 30 million USD network, operated by VCCorp, has been working with more than 500 content creators in education, lifestyle, and business and 30 formal information sources. Tools will be provided so that Lotus users can create their own fresh and beautiful content.
A: By 2023, Vietnam is forecast to have 75.7 million Internet users. The internet economy in Vietnam was valued at 9 billion USD last year, contributing 4% of the country’s GDP. E-commerce in Vietnam was forecast to double its market value in 2020. Mobile shopping is becoming especially popular. Digital payments, online gaming, music and video streaming, and online ride-hailing and online travel services, are also increasing in popularity and market value.
B: We received two letters this week from Fumito Hokamura of Japan. He regularly listens to VOV’s programs in Japanese and English. Fumito told us that he gave his father a VOV key chain and he liked it very much. Fumito and his father really like Vietnamese culture, songs, festivals, and customs.
A: I’m reading a letter from Felix Gurevich of the US, who said: “I really enjoyed listening to a program on August 12th. I found your program very interesting and educational. In today’s news I was very happy to hear that Vietnam won medals at the international Olympiad in Informatics. The Sunday Show was very interesting. The signal was strong and the audio quality was very good.”
B: Here’s a letter from another American listener, John Rutledge, who listened to our program in Guangzhou, China. He wrote: “Thank you for broadcasts. I still enjoy them and listen whenever I have time. I continue to like the content. Your broadcast signal quality in south China in August was much better than in February of this year. At that time, I listened for many days, but only could hear two broadcasts that were clear and understandable. All broadcasts came in loud and clear. Back in northeast China where I live, signal quality is sometimes good and sometimes not. It’s hard to predict.”
A: Thank you all for your feedback. We’ll send verification cards to confirm your reports. John Rutledge, your QSL cards will be sent to your US address.
B: Siddhartha Bhattacharjee, President of India’s Chaitak Listeners Club asked about Vietnam’s automobile industry and the biggest manufacturer. According to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, Vietnam’s automobile market saw impressive growth last year with nearly 290,000 vehicles sold, an annual rise of nearly 6%.
 Cars manufactured at Thaco Kia Factory in the Chu Lai-Truong Hai Auto Complex in Quang Nam Province. Car engines will soon be produced locally. (photo: VNA) |
A: Imports were greatly impacted by a decree tightening regulations on cars shipped to Vietnam, allowing domestically produced automobiles to drive the market’s growth. Last year sales of domestically assembled vehicles rose 10.6 percent, while sales of imported cars fell 6.2 percent. The leading firms in the market are Thaco, Toyota Vietnam, Ford Vietnam, and Honda Vietnam.
B: VinFast, a car manufacturing unit of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate Vingroup, delivered to customers its first Fadil model in June and other sedan and SUV models branded Lux in July. VinFast officially entered the automotive market in November last year with its electric scooter models.
 Vinfast Lux A2.0 at Paris Auto Show 2019 |
A: They plan to go big very soon, setting themselves some ambitious targets. The VinFast plant will produce vehicles such as electric motorbikes, sedans and sports utility vehicles and also cater to export markets. The company is looking to reach a production capacity of 500,000 cars and a localisation ratio of 60 percent by 2025. It expects to begin exports in mid-2020.
B: This week we acknowledge reports from Nusrat Zahan and Amena Khanam Sale of Bangladesh, Saleem Akhtar Chadhar and Abid Hussain Sajid of Pakistan, and Jayanta Chakrabarty of India.
A: We’d like to thank you all for sending feedback on our shortwave broadcasts and internet content. We’ll send you verification cards to confirm your reports.
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.