Nguyen Thuy Lam won Miss Universe Vietnam 2008 contest. — Photo news.zing.vn

HA NOI (VNS) — The culture, sports and tourism ministry has just granted permission to Unicorp to organise the Miss Universe Vietnam 2015 contest from April 2 to August 8.

The qualifying round will be organised from June 11 to 20 in Ha Noi and HCM City, while the semi-final round will be held from July 6 to 10 in Nha Trang City. The final round of the national contest will be held in Nha Trang from July 25 to August 8.

The final round will take place at the 7500-seat Diamond Bay Theatre, built for the 2008 Miss Universe contest and considered to be the largest such theatre in Southeast Asia.

The Miss Universe Vietnam contest was first organised in 2008, in which Nguyen Thuy Lam won the crown and represented Viet Nam at the international Miss Universe Contest held in Nha Trang in the same year. She was among the top 15 finalists at the event.

The first and second runners-up at Miss Universe Vietnam 2008 contest Duong Truong Thien Ly and Vo Hoang Yen represented Viet Nam at the Miss World 2008 and Miss Universe 2009 contests, respectively, but failed to win any prizes. — VNS