Hi, welcome to VOVNews mailbag

To open the mailbag today, we bring you excerpts of an email written by Nguyen Thanh – an overseas Vietnamese residing in the United States. He wrote: "We will enter the New Year in three weeks’ time. Looking back at last year, Vietnam has obtained the great achievements in all areas of economics, culture, education and healthcare, particularly in diplomacy. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai’s visit to the US in June 2005 opened up a new chapter in bilateral relations, as well as between Vietnam and other western countries. The move testified to the success of the Doi Moi (Renewal) policy initiated by Vietnam in 1986.

According to the goal "Vietnam is ready to befriend all countries", the Vietnamese nation has shown its love for peace, freedom and democracy. The country’s diplomatic policy has been extolled by international friends. I am happy to see the country come off well on the path to industrialisation and modernisation. It has expanded and strengthened the national great unity bloc. In the course of history, unity was the goal, therefore today we should further uphold our predecessors’ spirit to make the country move forward on par with other powers in the world."

Thank you for your long email. We must say that your wish is also the wish of all generations of Vietnamese people. To do that, we need a greater effort by everybody, including overseas Vietnamese like you. You know many overseas Vietnamese people share your view about the homeland by having returned to the homeland or getting information through domestic and international media. Do you have any plan to return to Vietnam during the upcoming Traditional Lunar New Year Festival (Tet)? We would be happy to receive you in Hanoi then. We wish you good health and success in your work.

The 23rd Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games) ended in the Philippines after nine days of tough competitions. It was the most successful sporting event for Vietnam in the year as we bagged 71 gold, 68 silver and 89 bronze medals, ranking us third on the medal tally after the Philippines and Thailand. Never before had Vietnam obtained such standing at a regional sporting event held abroad.

Although the Games are over, its echo will exist and to a certain extent the regional sporting event has rekindled the national pride of Vietnamese nationals. From Seattle, the US, Phan Lac Dong Quan wrote: "The two-syllable word, Vietnam hold a deep position in the hearts and minds of any Vietnamese national wherever they are and whatever position they hold. In the hearts of everybody, Vietnam has overcome hardships and is advancing steadily … With our skillful hands and creativeness, our country is now admired by the whole world. Bearing in mind the blood of a heroic nation, with traditional patriotism, Vietnam deserves to be one of the most heroic nations in the world….. We were proud and moved to hear news of the triumphs of Vietnamese athletes at the 23rd SEA Games. Young Vietnamese people have really built on the cause of their predecessors through practical deeds and wisdom to help the country side with other powers in the world."

Back to other emails. During the week, we also received many opinions from listeners regarding the webcasting of the four VOV channels on VOVNews.

From Germany, Le Anh Tuan wrote: "I frequently log on to VOVNews and listen to your webcasts. I like these webcasts very much, particularly the four VOV channels. We hope VOVNews will further develop."

Other anonymous listeners appreciated VOV for its efforts to improve its broadcasting programmes. They said they are regular VOV listeners and like listening to the Music and Entertainment channel (VOV3) or new programmes such as the "Quick and Snow" show. Some listeners proposed that VOVNews webcast lullabies for children, while some others asked about the frequency and the broadcasting time of VOV’s Khmer ethnic programme in Ho Chi Minh City.

Thank you all for your invaluable comments and recommendations to VOVNews. We will try our best to make our website friendlier to users.

"Quick and Snow" show is a new VOV programme broadcast on Sunday mornings and re-broadcast on Thursday evenings on the Music and Entertainment Channel (VOV3). You can also listen to this programme live at the VOVNews Website. If you have any queries about the programme, you can log on to www.theoyeucau.com and programme staff will answer your questions.

Currently, in our Music webpage, we have established the Lullaby box, comprising many selected lullabies from different regions of the country. You can visit this webpage and find the song you like. If you have any request for another lullaby, please tell us know and we try to find and post it on the web.

Regarding the Khmer ethnic programme, VOV established the ethnic language channel (VOV4) on October 1, 2004 based on the ethnic language programme. VOV4 airs its programmes in the central and southern regions in eight ethnic languages, namely Khmer, H’Mong, Ede, J’rai, Bana, Sedan, K’ho and Thai. However, the channel has not been launched on VOVNews, therefore listeners can only listen to the Khmer language programmes with their radio from 20.00 to 20.30 every day.

During the week, VOVNews received emails, reports and photos from Ngo Quang Dzung, Dao Thanh, Vu Lam, Hoang Thanh, Phan Quang, Cong Luan, Hoa Binh, Manh Hung, Mai Hong, Minh Hue, Khue Viet Truong, Tran Van, Hoang Lan and Phu Duc.

Thank you very much for your co-operation. If you have any queries about Vietnam, please write to us at the VOVNews Office, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam.

You can send your questions to vovnews@hn.vnn.vn or english@vovnews.vn or telephone us on (84-4) 8255319.

Thanks for joining us and goodbye.