Vietnam has just left the poor-country group but national broadcaster Vietnam Television (VTV) is planning to build the world’s highest TV tower, a reader said in a letter to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.  

>> An audio version of the story is available here A project by VTV to build a TV tower that will be the tallest in the world has drawn great attention from people working in the television sector, the reader, who signed as Phuong Nguyen and said he/she works in TV, said in opening the letter. On March 10, at the Hilton Hotel in Hanoi, a cooperation agreement on implementing the project to build a TV tower in the capital was signed between representatives of VTV, the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), and the BRG Group Joint Stock Company, Nguyen said.

Speaking at the event, VTV general director Tran Binh Minh said that the height of the future TV tower will be 636 meters, the tallest of its kind in the world. “It is the dream of VTV, the dream of countless generations of people working at VTV,” Nguyen quoted the VTV leader as saying. “In the past few days, I have searched and read many relevant sources of materials and learned that the highest TV tower in the world today is the Tokyo Skytree in Japan, with a height of 634 meters,” Nguyen said in the letter. “The investors of Tokyo Skytree are the famous broadcaster NHK and five other TV firms, which confirmed that this work serves as a symbol of Tokyo and does not aim at serving television services,” Nguyen said.

In the old days, when television signals were analog, the height of the tower played an important role, but today's television has switched to cable or satellite signals, so that height is meaningless, Nguyen stressed. If the proposed VTV tower is constructed, then according to a roadmap for development of the country’s TV sector by 2020, the highest tower will only serve as a symbol, similar to the Tokyo Skytree and some others in China, Nguyen remarked. The reader also pointed out that both Japan and China built such symbols only when they became world powers.

“Meanwhile, only Vietnam dreams of building the world’s highest TV tower not long after the country was removed from the global poor country group,” Nguyen said.

Vietnam is now a middle-income country, according to international standards, with GDP per capita around $2,000 last year. The Tuoi Tre reader emphasized that after building giant TV towers, an important duty is to use them efficiently, and not to turn them into debts.  Nguyen warned that the planned tower may cost up to US$1 billion, adding that the Skytree cost $820 million. Nguyen said that the operators of many multi-story buildings in Vietnam have had to hire foreign managers, but many of these high-rises have yet to gain efficiency as expected. Nguyen also said Vietnam is endowed with many wonders of nature such as Ha Long Bay, the Phong Nha cave system, or the Dong Van rock plateau, but the country has yet to use them in the best way for tourism purposes. “In reality, it impractical to dream of building the TV tower for business purposes and for attracting foreign visitors, isn’t it?” Nguyen questioned. “Many people like us have realized that our Vietnam contracts a ‘bad habit’: to rank as ‘the top of the world’ in various fields, while in fact, such ‘world tops’ have not been helpful in turning Vietnamese into an ‘economic dragon’,” Nguyen said. “If VTV wants to have something that is the world’s best, I hope that it will set up projects to make itself become the TV station that has the biggest number of broadcast programs that are the best and most creative in the world,” Nguyen said.Tower to bring economic value: VTV deputy head Meanwhile, Nguyen Thanh Luong, vice general director of VTV and head of the board tasked with preparing for the TV tower project, said in an interview with Tuoi Tre that once built, the world’s tallest TV tower and the area around it will become a “locomotive” of economic development for Hanoi and Vietnam in general. The tower will then become an attractive tourist destination, contributing to economic development, Luong said.

It will also play a role in receiving and transmitting TV waves and will be of significance in terms of security and defense, he further explained. The government has allowed VTV to establish a joint stock company to invest in the TV tower project, Luong said. “We are now setting up the project, making designs, and seeking investment sources for it,” he said and emphasized that “the money to be used for the project will not come from the state coffers, but from private sources,” he added. Luong confirmed that VTV’s idea is to build a TV tower that is 636 meters tall, but the actual height will be subject to many factors, including the characteristics of the soil structure where the tower is expected to be constructed. He also expected that construction of such a tower would take five years. “Our idea is to build such a tower as a national symbol and at the same time contribute to attracting more tourists to the country,” Luong said. The fact that Vietnam’s tower will be a bit higher than others from around the world will facilitate marketing activities to promote the image of the country, he explained. Regarding public opinion that expresses concerns about Vietnam still being poor but wanting to develop a TV tower that is even taller than the Skytree of Japan, one of the richest nations in the world, Luong said, “All comparisons are lame.” He added: “I think we should look at the tower project with positive eyes. Late Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet agreed to the idea of building a TV tower in 1995, but it was not constructed because there was no investment at that time.” Luong asserted that the future TV tower will mainly serve economic purposes, not the reception and transmission of TV waves, as today all TV stations use waves from satellites. However, he added, the tower will still have an antenna system installed at its top.

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