HCM City-based Nguyễn Ka Anh Duy, 23, (centre) received the top prize of a seven-day trip to Poland next month. He has submitted 841 pieces of writing about Poland on Wikipedia.

The contest was held for the first time in Việt Nam from April 24 to July 12 to encourage people to learn more about Poland and provide information about the country for the public. It was open to internet users over the age of 18.

Accordingly, contestants posted writing and research online, particularly to Wikipedia and Wordpress.

HCM City-based Nguyễn Ka Anh Duy, 23, received the top prize of a seven-day trip to Poland next month. He has submitted 841 pieces of writing about Poland on Wikipedia. The entries about geography, history, architecture and culture in Poland received high praise from the jury and experts from the Việt Nam Institute of Geography, Việt Nam Academy of Science and Technology and the Việt Nam-Poland Friendship Organisation.

It’s clear how important and Wikipedia is nowadays, in Việt Nam, Asia, North America, Europe, Poland and elsewhere, according to Ambassador Wojciech Gerwel.

“The digital encyclopaedia is a reference point not only for pupils, students or curious individuals around the globe, but even for state leaders and governments,” he said.

He said he was pleasantly surprised as the contest attracted a huge response from Vietnamese Wikipedia editors and generated two thousand new entries about Poland in Vietnamese as well as blog posts about Polish geography and places of interests.

“We are happy that young people spent their spare time to contribute to the general good of their peers and whole society, by publishing high quality material and content about a country far away, but close to Việt Nam in its heart, Poland,” said Ambassador Gerwel.

“This year’s topic was a good start, as we believe Poland is a great country to visit, with its snowy Tatra mountains, vast lakes in the North, Baltic Sea beaches and numerous rivers and bustling cities and nice villages, and as geography and sight-seeing in general is an important topic in Việt Nam, as well as in Poland,” he added. — VNS