Vietnam is planning to set up an official matchmaking agency to arrange marriages between Vietnamese women and foreign men [via BBC]
Cross country arranged marriages are not uncommon in Asia, and its popularity is ever increasing for the past two decades. Women often see it as a route out of chaos and poverty, while men seeking foreign companions for various reasons.
Chinese women used to be the wife-in-demand, but Thai and Vietnamese are catching up in recent years. Their husband-to-be are usually from relatively well being places like Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan etc.
The boom however opens loopholes for illegal syndicates to cheat ladies into prostitutions or other illegal activities; and it’s also quite common that the men they finally met are not fitting to the descriptions provided by the agencies.
The Vietnamese government says it hopes the plan will help prevent the abuse of Vietnamese women by criminal organisations or by their new husbands.
