(VNF) - The five winners of the “New Zealand, New Horizon” competition were praised at an awards ceremony hosted by the New Zealand Embassy in Hanoi on May 25^th.

The prize giving ceremony took place at the conclusion of the Embassy’s “New Zealand, New Horizon” competition, organized in cooperation with Vnexpress, to improve interest and knowledge about New Zealand and its relationship with Vietnam. The competition was part of the Embassy’s activities celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations and friendship between the New Zealand and Vietnam, taking place this year.

The first prize was won by Nguyen Thanh Hang for her entry “Magical Dream”. Ms Hang won a paid vacation to New Zealand for two people. She explained that she had long wished that one day she could present some special gift to her parents who have been working hard to support her study. “The prize is such as nice surprise to me! I still think that I am in the middle of my magical dream. I have never been to New Zealand before but in my eyes New Zealadn is a very green and peaceful country. It will be a ‘haven’ for my parents to visit”, she said.

Over just three weeks, more than 200 articles, videos, poems and photos about many different aspects of New Zealand were submitted to Vnexpress and the New Zealand Embassy Hanoi for the competition. The competition also attracted almost 500,000 page views. The entries included works showcasing New Zealand’s people, culture, nature, education system and tourism.

New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam H.E. Mr Haike Manning said: “We received a great number of quality entries which really underscored the strong interest in and knowledge about New Zealand and the relationship between New Zealand and Vietnam. It was amazing that we had so many entries from people that had never even visited New Zealand.”

“But judging a competition like this is really tough. There were so many great entries that really expressed peoples’ love of New Zealand. The elements I was looking for most when judging the competition were originality and creativity. Humour, effort and technical skills applied to creating the entry were also important factors.” he said.

Ambassador Manning also expressed his thanks to the participants for telling their own interesting stories about New Zealand and supporting the Embassy’s efforts to increase knowledge and understanding between the two countries. He hoped that the competition would result in increased people-to-people links between New Zealand and Vietnam, including in tourism and education.

The two second prize winners were Nguyen Tran Duong Minh with his entry “Knighton school with memories” and Doan Thien Hoa Nghiem with “I love New Zealand”.

The two third prizes went to Vu Dieu Huong with “My story” and Truong Thi Bich Chung with “A dream of exploration”.

This is the second time the New Zealand Embassy has hosted the “New Zealand, New Horizon” competition in cooperation with Vnexpress. Ambassador Manning hoped that the competition would continue to attract many participants in future years./.

( VNF )