The Chinese Speech Contest was sponsored by the Council of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Vietnam, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam assisted. This is the third year of the contest, and this year’s theme was Youth and Sustainable Development Targets. Twenty-five teams of three people from senior high schools and universities in Hanoi, and northern Vietnam took part. The contest has attracted increasing attention. Thái Nguyên University, Thái Nguyên Key Senior High School, Thăng Long University, and Hanoi University of Social Science and Humanities participated for the first time this year, and the contest was well reported in the media, for example, Vietnam National Defense Television broadcast a special report on it.

Six teams passed the competitive preliminary contest and went through to the final round: the Big Cat team from the Foreign Trade University; the East Wind team from the Department of Chinese at Hanoi University; the Little Universe team from Amsterdam High School; the Spectacular Life team from the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University in Hanoi; the Three Lives–Three Worlds team from the Foreign Trade University; and the Wings of Dreams team from Hanoi University. The final consisted of three debates, with topics including: Knowledge in the book is more important than knowledge in the real life, do you agree or disagree?, Can money buy health?, Should gender education be included in elementary school courses?, and Which elements of quality, design, or marketing give products more value?’.

Mr. Kao Kuo-Hua, a commissioner of the Overseas Community Affairs Council of the Republic of China (Taiwan), was invited to give a speech in the opening ceremony, and to be one of the judges. The other was Ms. Chang Shu-Ching, the Education Secretary at the Education Division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vietnam was invited to be a final judge. Representatives from the branches of Council of Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in Vietnam and Taiwan business corporations were also invited to the event, to give them an opportunity recruit some of these excellent young people.

The students used this opportunity to exercise their debating skills with great flair, and showed their critical thinking ability. Their performances were quite spectacular and the judges had a difficult task. The Spectacular Life team from the University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University in Hanoi was declared the overall champion and received a prize of 8 million Vietnamese Dong (roughly 400 USD). The Big Cat team from the Foreign Trade University won the second place, and received 6 million Vietnamese Dong, and the East Wind team from the Department of Chinese at Hanoi University won the third place and received 3 million Vietnamese Dong.