Vietnam ready for Miss

Some of the world’s most beautiful women have converged on Vietnam for the Miss Universe pageant, for what organisers say is a prime opportunity for the communist country to show itself off. It may not be the Olympics, but with television audiences in 170 countries expected to tune in to watch Monday’s gala, it is being touted as Vietnam’s coming-out party. ‘It really puts Vietnam front and centre, it puts Vietnam on a world stage,’ said Paula Shugart, president of the Miss Universe Organisation. ‘They can host an event that is huge, that goes to a billion viewers around the world.’ Builders have only just finished the palm-fringed venue in the southern beach town of Nha Trang, the Crown Convention Centre at the Diamond Bay Resort – a short drive from Cam Ranh Bay, once a major US naval base.