A website at www.yoosk.vn/ukvn was launched on Dec. 2, aimed at opening up lines of communication between Public Figures in the UK and Vietnamese citizens.

The site was supported by the British Embassy in Hanoi and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) in coordination with Vietnamese internet news provider VietNamNet (http://tuanvietnam.net).

www.yoosk.com has been bringing this service to people in the UK for over a year now and has given UK citizens the chance to put questions directly to - and get answers from - such people as Premier League manager Paul Ince, Foreign Minister David Miliband, and London Mayor Ken Livingstone.

Yoosk was founded by former British Council Deputy Director Tim Hood and documentary film maker Keith Halstead, both based in Hanoi. It gives the public a direct line to politicians and other leaders and celebrities. “We have found that ordinary people like to see their own questions answered and public figures actually find it satisfying to know what questions are on people’s minds,” said Tim Hood.

According to British Ambassador to Vietnam Mark Kent, the Yoosk project will introduce a new way of engaging with the Vietnamese public using participative media.

The project will initially run for eight-ten weeks and cover one topic each week, which will be of interest to Vietnamese people. It will cover topics such as the global credit crisis, climate change, Premier League football, trade and investment and the problems faced when dealing with corruption.

High profile names in the UK will be invited to answer those questions which visitors to the site have voted as the best.