HCM CITY — Thirty candidates in the southern region will compete in the semi-final round of the Miss Vietnam 2018 pageant in Bình Định Province’s Quy Nhơn City.

Nearly 100 contestants participated in the qualifying round in HCM City last Sunday (June 10).

In the next 10 days, contestants will join training sections, photo shoots and activities to promote tourism development in the central coastal city of Quy Nhơn, said Phạm Kim Dung, deputy head of the contest’s board of organisers.

The semi-final night is scheduled to be held on June 23 at FLC Quy Nhơn Beach & Golf Resort and will be broadcast live on Vietnam Television, Dung said at a press meeting held on June 12 in HCM City.

The board of judges includes Dương Trung Quốc, a renowned historian; poet and journalist Trần Hữu Việt; designer Lê Thanh Hòa; Miss Vietnam 1988 Bùi Bích Phương; Miss Vietnam 1992 Hà Kiều Anh; and Miss Vietnam 2016 Đỗ Mỹ Linh.

To mark 30 years of the contest, for the first time in the history of the Miss Vietnam pageant, three winners of the pageant crown will be members of the judge board.

Forty contestants from the semi-final rounds in the south and the north will be chosen for the national final round.

The final round will be held on September 16 at Phú Thọ Stadium in HCM City.

Begun in 1988, the contest is organised every two years. — VNS