Vietnamese Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son paid a working visit to Russia from September 2-4 at the invitation of Russian Minister of Communications and Mass Media Nikolai Nikiforov.

During their working session, the two ministers briefed each other on the operation of each ministry and shared experience in developing and managing means of mass media.

They also discussed issues relating to the development of Internet services, broad-band mobile phone, frequency management and digital information.

Regarding the cooperation between the two ministries, Son said his ministry has well implemented the signed agreements and hopes to expand cooperation in other areas such as frequency management, telecommunications, journalism and publishing, copyright protection and personnel training.

The two sides recognised progress in promoting information on each country’s situation over the past years. They were keen on outlining more detailed cooperation contents to expand the friendship between the two countries and the two ministries in particular.

Minister Nikolai Nikiforov hailed the speedy and dynamic growth of information technology and mass media in Vietnam .

He said Russia is a strong and competitive telecommunications market, especially in developing 4G technology infrastructure, adding that the country targets 80 percent of population benefiting from e-government by 2018.

In terms of personnel training, the two sides acknowledged the Russian side’s contributions in training Vietnamese communications staff.

Minister Nikolai Nikiforov affirmed that Russia is willing to continue training Vietnam staff so that they can meet modern international standards while sharing organising and management experience with Vietnam ’s high-tech institutes.

Russia will cooperate with Vietnam in expanding their presence in the world technology market as well as increasing opportunities for their people to access information technology applications, firstly reducing international roaming fee between the two countries, he added.

The Russian minister also spoke highly the two sides’ coordination at international forums such as the International Telecommunications Union and voiced hope that Vietnam will support Russia ’s bid to become the leader of the union.

During his stay, Minister Son also visited the Russian State Television.-VNA