The committee is considered important as primary voting for the entries will be completed by the end of this year.

Since a Swiss foundation known as New Open World was set up in 2001 to protect the world’s human-built and natural heritage, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism launched a programme to promote the images of Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh Province, Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park in Quang Binh Province and Fansipan Mountain in Lao Cai Province.

In the past year, many activities have been carried out to promote the images of these potential World Wonders as well as the image of the country.

However there has been a lack of unanimity in the campaign to mobilise votes for these localities, according to Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Nguyen Quoc Cuong.

In April, after a number of domestic copyright violations involving local websites posting logos and images without permission from event co-ordinators, the three Vietnamese locations were removed from the website by the NewOpenWorld group.

On May 5, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem approved the setting up of a national committee to mobilise votes

Members of the committee include the deputy ministers of Foreign Affairs and of Culture, Information and Tourism - and the vice chairmen of the three provinces.

On December 21, NewOpenWorld will announce the 77 wonders with the highest votes. An expert group will then choose 21 candidates and announce the winners in January.

Ha Long Bay currently ranks third among the 77 candidates, while Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park and Fansipan Mountain rank 13th and 14th.

In coming months, the steering committee will organise meetings with universities to encourage students to vote for the three beauty spots and hire a TV channel to produce films on the locations for international distribution.