Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has underlined the Vietnam News Agency’s role and responsibility as a reliable strategic information provider of the Party and State, during his New Year visit to the VNA in Hanoi on Jan. 18.

Trong commended VNA on its performance of assigned political tasks and its efforts to renew content and reporting styles, saying that VNA is an information bank providing all kinds of information on domestic and world situation to media agencies and people of all walks of life.

“Dealing with adverse impacts of the market economy and international integration, the mass media needs to strengthen its role as an army on the ideological front with each reporter being a soldier and their pen and paper being their weapon.

As a news bank, VNA needs to design a long-term information strategy and vision for the future as well as training programmes to develop a contingent of proficient reporters, who are firm politically and ideologically to better perform their duties,” he added.

Welcoming the Party leader, VNA General Director Nguyen Duc Loi said in the context of an increasingly fierce ideological fight and a harsh information competition, VNA has exerted its utmost to increase coverage quality to well perform the function of a reliable strategic information centre, a news bank serving not only the media system but also the Party and Government work as well as research and policy making institutes; and at the same time actively fight against hostile forces’ propaganda.

During his visit, the Party chief visited the VNA’s Departments of World News and Domestic News and wished all reporters, editors and technicians a happy New Year./.