Attending the ceremony were Mr Nguyen Tran Quang, Director of the Informatics Center - Quang Binh People’s Committee Secretary; Mr Nguyen Duy Luong, Director of FFI Program (Fauna & Flora International); Ms Nguyen Thi Nguyet, Vice-chairwoman of the Vietnamese Youth Union of Quang Binh; QBO members and contestants.

QBO English Writing Contest was officially launched on March 26 2008, with two rounds according to the following schedule: the first round was taken place from March 26 to April 20 2008. The contestants wrote a personal introduction essay. The second round from April 25 to May 25 2008: wrote a essay according to five topics relating to Quang Binh, namely: Find and discuss several good things & things to be improved on in Quang Binh; Introduce your hometown to your friend or a foreigner who is visiting Quang Binh; How do you think Quang Binh would look like 5 years from now?; Write about your past experience(s) in Quang Binh and how it shaped who you are; Discuss the importance of English in obtaining a career pertaining to Quang Binh.

The contest’s emphasis is to motivate young people to study English enthusiastically and not to compete merely for prizes. Prizes are only considered as a small encouragement to the participants. The best essays could be posted on the international magazines on tourism, contributing to bringing the image of Quang Binh to the world. Together with organizing the contest, the forum also posted information about study abroad, had a talk with contestants to share experience in studying English and opportunities for study abroad. These meaningful activities contributed to helping young people have more information and orientations for their future.

As a result, the first round received the submissions of 137 contestants, of which 8 excellent essays. The second round had 63 contestants, of which 22 contestants were chosen for the final round. The quality of the essays was pretty decent and uniform. In addition, there were some extremely good submissions that were impressive to the Judging Committee because of the content’s creativity, maturity, and progressive thoughts. In addition, Dr Clark, academic advisor of the contest, director of English Language Institute (ELI) at Texas A&M University said: "an essay of a contestant deserves to be posted on the Tourism Magazine".

At the summation ceremony, the Board of Organizers awarded 12 honourable prizes, 2 third prizes, 2 second prizes, 2 first prizes and other prizes to the contestants participated in QBO English Writing Contest.

Granting Certificates to the contestants .

Awarding first prize to the contestant .

Awarding second prize to the contestants .

Awarding third prize to the contestants .

Awarding honourable prize to the contestants .

Granting gifts to four schools having contestants participated the most

By N.Y