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14 Secondary Students Awarded by "Viet Nam 2030" Essay Contest

Ha noi, Viet Nam (27 January 2008) – The Asian Development Bank and Ministry of Education and Training awarded prizes for 14 winning students of the essay contest "Viet Nam 2030" at a ceremony held today in Ha Noi.

The Essay Contest, held from 20 September to 20 November in 2007 for students aged 11 - 18 in 64 provinces and cities of Viet Nam, was organized to describe Viet Nam's vision for the year 2030 in 2030 words. The Essay Contest was an opportunity for students to express their views as to: how Viet Nam should look like in 2030? what needs to be done between now and then for the country to achieve such a vision? what kind of roles would the secondary students like to play in 2030? and how do they plan to prepare themselves for their future role in 2030?

The essay contest was organized as one of the activities commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the ADB Viet Nam Resident Mission. The Kick-off Ceremony was held at Viet Tien Lower Secondary School, Viet Yen District, Bac Giang Province.

The awarding ceremony was attended by Vice Minister for Education and Training, Mr. Nguyen Vinh Hien, ADB Vice President Mr. Laurence C. Greenwood, Jr., ADB Country Director for Viet Nam, Ayumi Konishi, as well as other senior Government officials and students and teachers from schools in Ha Noi and other provinces.

"Since the mandate of Asian Development Bank is to help Viet Nam realize its vision for the future, we were very keen to learn the dreams of secondary students who will have to actually work on building the country's future." says Ayumi Konishi, ADB's Country Director for Viet Nam.

Between 20 September and 20 November, over 350,000 entries from schools in all over Viet Nam were received. A panel comprising one member of National Assembly, leaders from Committee for Social Affairs of the National Assembly, National Institute for Education Strategy and Curriculum, Departments of Students Affairs, Department of Secondary Education, teachers of lower and upper secondary schools, Editor-in-Chief of Thieu Nien Tien phong and Giao duc va Thoi Dai newspapers and representative from ADB have chosen the winning essays through a two-month selection process. The essays are rich in quality and variety, which made selection of the finalists a challenging task. Finally, the judges selected 3 essays for the first prize, 4 essays for the second prize, 7 essays for the third prize and 31 essays for the consolation prize. The winners are awarded with trophies, certificates and scholarships.

"It was a great pleasure to read the touching essays at the final selection. The youth today are strongly self-confident and full of ambitious for the future" says Mr. Nguyen Lan Dung, Judge of the Essay Contest.

The Essay Contest also drew great supports from sponsors including Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC), Korea Water Resources Cooperation (K-water), Itochu Cooperation, and the Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel.

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