B: Thank you very much for your loyalty to VOV and your compliments about our programs. Daniel Jenkins of the US wrote on a postcard showing the autumn beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee: “I enjoy your programs very much, keep up the good work”. Gordon Charland said he immensely enjoyed the program on July 15 on the frequency of 12005 khz.

A: Risto Happonen of Finland tuned in to our program on July 22 on the frequency of 7280 khz. He used an Eton Grundig satellite 750 and rated SINPO at 55545. Risto commented: “VOV heard on 7280 khz is often very good in Tuusniemi, a village near the city of Kuopio, in eastern Finland. The signal is strong. I sometimes listen to your station’s news and exotic Vietnamese music.” We have checked your reception reports which tally well with our station log. We’ll issue QSL cards to confirm them and trust you’ll get them soon.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung during the latter's visit to India in October, 2014

B: From India, West Bengal, Soumya Bhattacharya, shared his views on some stories he heard on VOV. He wrote: “The visit of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam to the US at the invitation of the Obama administration had my attention to this month. I found this move was very much appreciated and I am sure it will prove to be beneficial to Vietnam in many ways. I also believe it will make the role of Vietnam stronger in Asia. Thank you for providing detailed coverage of this visit and also for conducting a series of commentaries and reports on US-Vietnam relations. The same for your detailed coverage of the BRICS and SCO Summit in Ufa, Russia. The detailed analysis was very useful.”

A: Soumya continued: “Recently I saw an interesting report on Indonesian fisheries on TV and that report had some minor references to Vietnam and other countries in South East Asia. I am not sure if you have a program on Vietnam's fishing and fishery industry. If not then it would be wonderful if you could provide me and other listeners with some information about fishing in Vietnam, Vietnam's fish exports, imports, and consumption trends. Are Vietnamese people fond of fish and seafood?”

Braised fish is a popular dish in Vietnam

B: Well, my family has fish or seafood at least 4 times a week. We love both freshwater and marine fish, shrimps, crabs, and mollusks. Fishery products account for a large portion of the Vietnamese diet. Vietnamese people consume fishery products mainly because of their high nutritional value, their ease of digestion, and because they are relatively cheap.

A: We like to eat fish because it's easy to cook, widely available, safe, and adds variety to the daily diet. The average cost of popular species of fish is 3 USD per kg, while the price of pork and chicken averages 5 USD per kg and beef as much as 10 USD per kg.

A Seafood shop on Phu Quoc island

B: Vietnam has a long coastline of 3,260 km and more than 1 million km² of marine exclusive economic zones. This provides Viet Nam with abundant marine resources and biodiversity.  More than 2,000 fish species are found in the sea waters of Viet Nam. Of these, approximately 130 species are economically important. Additionally, there are more than 1,600 species of crustaceans and 2,500 species of mollusks with an annual allowable catch of 60,000 to 70,000 tons.

A: In 2014, seafood production totaled 6.8 million tons. Vietnamese seafood products are shipped to 164 foreign markets. The seafood industry earned nearly 8 billion USD from exports last year, putting Vietnam in the world’s top 5 seafood producers and exporters.

A temporary fish market on the seashore

A: The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, VASEP, reports that the most promising export market for Vietnamese seafood this year is the Republic of Korea. VASEP economists said the Vietnam-RoK Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed early this year has added fresh impetus to Vietnam’s shrimp exports to the RoK. The RoK was Vietnam’s fifth largest shrimp consumption market after the US, Japan, the EU, and China in 2014, with shrimp exports to the market totaling 320 million USD. Vietnam surpassed China to become the largest shrimp provider to the RoK last year.

B: Dx’er Jayanta Chakrabarty of India said VOV has reported on Vietnam-India cooperation in technology, particularly space technology and exploration of outer space. He’s interested in knowing something about outer space research and space science development in Vietnam. Key agencies are the Space Technology Institute, the Vietnam National Space Center, the Vietnam Aerospace Association, and the FPT Technology Research Institute. Vietnam’s first space activity dates back to 1980 and cosmonaut Pham Tuan’s flight to the Salyut 6 space station as part of the Intercosmos program, making him the 1^st Asian in space.

A: Although space technology is only beginning its development in Viet Nam, with the support of the government and international cooperation, Viet Nam is determined to build a solid foundation. Initial steps have been taken in hydrometeorology, information and communications, remote sensing, and satellite navigation. Ground stations have been constructed to serve television broadcasting and telecommunications, most notably the VINASAT project.

B: The VINASAT-1 and VINASAT-2 satellites are two commercial communication satellites launched into orbit in 2008 and 2012. The satellites are tracked and telecommanded 24/7 by two Telemetry, Tracking and Command (TT&C) stations. The satellites are principally used to offer high power direct-to-home television broadcasting, mobile telephony, internet, multimedia and fixed satellite services (FSS) to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.

A: This has been the Letter Box on VOV. Remember that you can listen to this program again on our website at www.vovworld.vn. Please send your feedback to: English section, Overseas Service, Radio Voice of Vietnam, 45 Ba Trieu Street, Hanoi, Vietnam. Our email address is englishsection@vov.org.vn. Good bye until next time.