The first communal cultural post office of Yen Bai Province, Hung Thinh, has been hooked up to Internet and fax services.

Among more than 6,000 cultural post offices (rural post offices providing not only postal and telecommunications services, but also act as libraries), 30-40 have been connected to the Internet. According to plan, about 500 post offices of this kind will be linked to the Internet by the year's end.

The Post Office of northern Hung Yen Province has completed the setting up of Village Post Office Cultural Centers in all of its 154 communes in 9 districts of the province. These centres, with the investment of VND70 million for each and equipped with communications and postal media, have helped improve people's knowledge and satisfied the communications demand of local people.

Over the past five years, Village Post Office Cultural Centres in the highland province of Dak lak have become familiar places for cultural and information exchange for local residents and school children in remote and far-away areas of the province. The Dak lak Post Office has been appraised by the Vietnam Post and Telecommunication (VNPT), its mother company, as one of the five leading subsidiaries for have the most effective Village Post Office Cultural Centres. These centres posted an average revenue of VND3.5 million/centre as compared the average VND1.5 level for all other centres of VNPT.

This is the result of the "Raising children's books for reading by rural children in Village Post Office Cultural Centres" which was jointly launched by Vietnam Post and Telecommunication (VNPT), the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCMCYU) and the Ministry of Education and Training. The objective of the programme is helping children in remote and far-away areas with books for free reading in Village Post Office Cultural Centres.

The chairman of the People's Committee of the Yen Ninh commune in the Y Yen district of northern Nam Dinh province affirmed that the construction of Village Post Office Cultural Centres is the duty of the Post Office but all other society levels should contribute their efforts as this programme is beneficial for the community.

Over the past five years (1998-2003), the Post Office of the Gia Lai Province has invested VND 81 billion in the construction of 122 Village Post Office Cultural Centres, 98 of which have been operational. Particularly, 100% communes in the districts of Chu Se and Duc Co have had Village Post Office Cultural Centres.