Province offers up to $40,000 for students winning international Olympiad gold medal, eight times Vietnam's GDP per capita - VnExpress International

Quang Ninh's base award for an international gold is VND700 million ($26,600). It rises to VND1.05 billion for students who are from ethnic minorities or who live in designated ethnic minority, mountainous or island communes.

Silver pays VND500 million, bronze VND400 million and a certificate of merit VND200 million, under a resolution effective Aug. 1. Teachers who train a winner collect half the student's award.

The province also pays VND70 million for a national first prize, more than 17 times the state rate.

For scale, VND1.05 billion is more than a decade of earnings for the average Vietnamese worker, who made VND8.4 million a month last year, according to the national statistics office.

National rewards are far smaller, including VND55 million ($2,090) for an international gold, VND35 million for silver and VND25 million for bronze, with national-level prizes worth VND1 million to VND4 million.