"This funding will help call for more foreign and local investment into the area," Thang said, adding that VAT will disburse the money for four national key tourist zones and 17 theme tourist areas across the country to improve their tourism infrastructure facilities.

Alongside, the VAT will also use the funding to promote tourism in the Central and Central Highlands regions and to serve major events to be organised at big tourism centres.

Thang said her administration will coordinate with localities boasting national tourism sites to organise conferences calling for foreign investment in these sites. These localities will include the northern provinces of Quang Ninh and Ha Tay, Ha Noi, the central provinces of Thua Thien-Hue, Quang Nam, Khanh Hoa, and Da Nang city, and the southern province of Kien Giang.

The tourism sector plans to receive 3.2 million foreign visitors and to serve 15 million domestic tourists in 2005, representing year-on-year increases of 14 percent and 10.5 percent, respectively. It also aims to earn revenues of 30 trillion VND (1.9 billion USD), a 15 percent increase over 2004.

In 2004, the State pumped 500 billion VND into the tourism sector's infrastructure facilities, 70 percent of which was channelled to national tourist sites and places of tourism potential with the aim to facilitate trans-national tours, and tours throughout Asia and on the East-West corridor.

The signing, part of the VAT’s international co-operation programme, helped bring the total bilateral co-operation agreements it has signed to 22.

At present, the VAT is implementing a Spanish-funded project to help improve marketing capacity and develop sustainable tourism in Viet Nam .

The year of 2004 saw the tourism industry, in collaboration with the World Tourism Organisation, successfully organise the Asia-Pacific Tourism Ministerial Meeting in Hue , helping improve the prestige and position of Viet Nam ’s tourism in the international arena.

In addition, the industry presented a number of practical initiatives at multilateral co-operation forums, including forums within the framework of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation and the Asia-Pacific Tourism Association.

Of the figure, more than 275,000 came in November.

More than 33 percent of the total visited the country for tourism purposes, and the remainder for business and other purposes.

Chinese visitors accounted for the largest proportion, followed by visitors from the US, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

As a result, the tourism sector earned revenues of over 21,000 billion VND (1.3 billion USD) in 11 months.