In the last 20 years, Vietnam’s media landscape has expanded rapidly in terms of platforms, publications, journalists and audience figures. Though this represents an encouraging trend in terms of public access to information, the development has tended to be concentrated in the urban areas, with those living in remote, mountainous and ethnic minority communities being deprived of such improvement. Given this backdrop, since 2011, the Vietnamese Government has started to implement a “National Target Programme expanding information to remote, mountainous, border and islands areas” aimed at improving the infrastructure of communication and information, developing training materials and training of media practitioners and communication officers in local areas, with particular emphasis on disadvantaged and ethnic minority regions. Radio broadcasting has been considered as one of the most effective means of communication in remote regions which are often inhabited by ethnic minority communities.
 
Of the 341 broadcasters of ethnic minority programmes, only a small number are of ethnic minority origin with few being able to write news stories and reports in the national language, let alone in their mother tongues. A recent survey by Voice of Vietnam showed that only 36.6 % of these broadcasters are college graduates, and only 50% are high school graduates. As very few have received academic journalism education or training in broadcasting skills (both technical and editorial), or possess knowledge on ethnic diversity, most ethnic minority broadcasters tend to originate from a professional background as translators or presenters. Those who have been trained in ethnic languages or journalism generally lack professional competence in ethnic diversity programming.
 
This project will attempt to address the issue by equipping 60 ethnic minority radio producers working in 39 radio stations in Vietnam with the necessary skills and knowledge on digital recording, digital editing techniques and sourcing information on the internet. This will enable the trainees to apply their knowledge to produce radio programmes in ethnic minorities languages, after participating in four five-day training courses over a 12-month period.