Established on 28 February 2000 as a not for profit agency affiliated to the then Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, the Việt Nam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC) is charged with responsibility for managing, allocating, supervising and promoting the use of Internet domain names, addresses and autonomous system numbers (ASNs) in Việt Nam; for providing Internet-related guidance, statistics; and for taking part in international activities on Internet. VNNIC's main functions and duties are regulated by Decision No 28/2003/QD-BBCVT dated 12 March 2003 by the Minister of Posts & Telematics as follows: planning, managing and allocating IP addresses and ASNs at national level; managing and allocating domain names for Internet-related activities at national level, including second level domain names under .vn and third level domain names under second level generic domain names; setting up, utilising and maintaining the performance of domain name servers of .vn; participating in the development of new Internet resource technologies, DNS and IP technology and the Certification Authority system on the Internet; inspecting and supervising the use of IP address, ASN and domain names allocated to organizations and individuals engaging in Internet activities; participating in state management in relation to the activities of associations and non-governmental organisations in the Internet field; as the official Việt Nam Internet representative taking part in the activities of international Internet organisations relating to Internet resources and IP technology; collecting fees and commissions for activities relating to the functions, tasks and powers of the Centre and in accordance with current law; co-operating with international organisations with a view to developing a stand-by DNS system for thenational level domain name .vn; registering and maintaining Việt Nam's Internet resources; and globally marketing Việt Nam's Internet and developing the use of the .vn suffix. In its three years of operation, VNNIC has become a springboard to help integrate Việt Nam with the international community in the Internet field, a promotor of domestic Internet development and an Internet information connector to guide Vietnamese Internet users. in 2004 the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) – the regional Internet registry in the Asia Pacific region - officially recognised VNNIC as the National Internet Registry (NIR) for Việt Nam. An NIR is a special entity in APNIC’s member tier, responsible for registering domestic Internet resources demand and re-allocating the resources to on-demand customers. Presently, six organisations have been recognised as NIRs in the Asia Pacific region - APJII (Indonesia), CNNIC (China), JPNIC (Japan), KRNIC (Korea), TWNIC (Taiwan) and VNNIC.