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The Vietnam national round of the 2015 Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship (MOSWC) officially kicked off at a ceremony at the Foreign Trade University in Ho Chi Minh City on October 18.

The Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship is an annual competition involving Microsoft Office applications held all over the world by Certiport – an American organization specializing in validating fundamental computer skills and knowledge through performance-based testing.

The competition requires participants to take full advantage of several available computer software tools to display their abilities and skills to process the information given by the jury in the best possible way.

This year, the Vietnam’s contest is jointly organized by the Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training, Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper and IIG Vietnam - the representative of Certiport in Vietnam.

It welcomes the participation of students at all universities, colleges and vocational schools in 63 cities and provinces across Vietnam.

Winners will have chances to attend the world final round in the U.S. and receive awards worth from US$1,000 to US$5,000.

Speaking at the competition’s launching ceremony, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Vinh Hien said 2015 will be an important mark for the development of MOSWC in Vietnam.

He added that this is the first time the contest has been run and held by the country’s leading educational and news agencies.

“Basing on the experiences we have had from the previous contests, together with a reputable organizing board, we believe that MOSWC will gain more achievements, encouraging student’s spirit of learning Office Informatics in order to succeed in the future,” he stated.

Pham Duc Hai, editor-in-chief of Tuoi Tre Newspaper expressed his hope that the competition will attract a large number of young people, creating more chances for the organizing board to select the most talented participants for the final round.

The newspaper will also run a column at http://mos.tuoitre.vn to update the contest’s information.

There were 174 teams with nearly 1,000 participants attending the 2014 MOSWC national round in Vietnam.

The 2014 competition marked the third continuous year Vietnam has conquered medals at the MOSWC’s final round.

Two out of three Vietnamese contestants bagged two bronze medals in the final round in California which gathered 110 teams from many countries and territories around the world.

The medals went to Tran Phuc Duy, a 10th-grade student at Lawrence S. Ting High School, who won the MS PowerPoint 2010 category, and Tran Minh Tien, a student from the Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City, winner of the MS Excel 2010 category.

In 2013, Vietnam also grabbed a bronze medal in the MOS Excel 2010 category.

In 2012, the Southeast Asian country earned a gold medal in the MS Excel 2010 category.