With but two months to go before the Miss World pagent, there’s no assurance of a Vietnamese contestant.

Huong Giang

For many years, Elite Vietnam has been the exclusive provider of contestants from Vietnam to international beauty contests, including Miss World. This year, however, the model management firm decided to stop purchasing the local franchise for the Miss World pageant. Elite explained that it plans to grow its modeling business ‘in other directions,’ whatever that means.

However, right after Elite Vietnam bailed out, a firm calling itself RASS jumped in. Minh Suong, a top executive of RASS, says the organizing board of Miss World has authorized her firm to select Vietnamese candidates to attend Miss World 2009 and 2010.

And there’s a problem, Suong said. “In 2009, the only authorized national beauty contest was Mrs Vietnam 2009,” she explained.

VNNet Bridge’s internet search revealed only that RASS is the American company that a year ago announced plans to stage the 2010 Miss World Contest in Nhatrang. It has staged a ‘Miss Vietnam Global’ competition in the US this year. The General Director of RASS is a Vietnamese-American, Hoang Kieu.

Suong stressed that RASS is making every effort to find three beauties to represent Vietnam at international contests. RASS will file documents at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MOST) to seeking its permission to deploy deserving beauties to the contest.

“Assuming we get MOST permission,” Suong added, “we have to decide how to choose the beauties who are deserved to be representatives for Vietnam,”

Will Huong Giang compete at Miss World 2009?

On October 13, the Miss World 2009 official website featured names and images of 100 beauties from all over the world. A ‘Miss Vietnam’ is conspicuously missing.

However, some sources say that Huong Giang is now the most brilliant candidate to represent Vietnam at Miss World 2009. Contacted by VietNamNet, the well-known model said that would be a great honour if true. Giang is 22 years old and 1.78 metres tall.

Under the Miss World regulations, candidates must be either the winner or a runner-up at a national beauty contest. Huong Giang was second runner-up for the title of Miss Vietnam Global 2009, but that contest was organized in the US.

And Vietnam’s entry for Miss Earth 2009 is . . .

Truong Thi May

The HCM City modeling world is abuzz with whispers that Truong Thi May, runner up at Miss Ethnic Vietnam 2007 and runner-up at Miss Vietnam Photogenic 2006, will be nominated to attend Miss Earth 2009.

Elite Vietnam still has the franchise to send candidates to the Miss Earth contest. A representative of Elite revealed that the firm intended to cue up Huynh Thanh Tuyen for the Philippines gala. However, after hearing that Tuyen is going to marry a VIP in the media sector, Elite Vietnam has to look for another beauty.

Thuy Hanh, an Elite exec, said that the firm is applying for MOST’s clearance to deploy beauties to Miss Earth 2009. “We still cannot reveal who will attend the contest. We may declare next week,” Hanh said.

MOST is waiting

Meanwhile, MOST says it has not received any proposals from any firms on sending beauties to international beauty contests.

Son Ha