The Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC) under the Ministry of Information and Communications, on April 28 offered free registration of domain names in the Vietnamese language.

Accordingly, any individual can register and use five free domains while each organisation, both domestic and abroad, can register 100 domains, at five websites, namely http://Tên.VN, http://Ten.VN, http://name.VN , http://tênmiềntiếngviệt.vn and http://tenmientiengviet.vn on a first come, first served basis.

The programme is aimed at protecting ideas, product names, services and trade names in the Vietnamese language on the global internet.

Up to April 20, almost 2,536 domains in Vietnamese language have been licensed by VNNIC./.