The students were chosen after the entire field participated in competitions that were held from January to April in Hanoi and HCM City.

The contest, Asia’s Best English Speaker of Business English Competition 2008, will then be narrowed to 10 competitors this week who will compete in the final round on October 25 in HCM City.

Contestants, who are either from HCM City or Hanoi, compete by giving one prepared speech of three minutes long and one improvised speech of four minutes long. They also have to answer questions from a panel of judges.

The first and second prize winners of the final competition will be invited to participate in the Asian Business English Competition in Singapore in February.

China, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and India will each have two representatives in the competition.

The competition, organized by the University of Cambridge’s ESOL Examinations, aims to give students and young professionals in Asia a chance to take part in the internationally recognized Business Language Test BULATS and to compete in an international English-language event.