The State-owned Vietnam News Agency, the chair of the first National External Information Service Awards 2014, is the leading provider of external information service in Vietnam via its numerous news department, newspapers, a publishing house and a network of bureaus in all 63 provinces and cities in the country and dozens of countries across all five continents.

The agency runs various information services tailored specifically for foreign audiences.

The News for Foreign Service Department publishes constantly-updated news in four languages: English, French, Chinese and Spanish on the VNA’s e-newspaper Vietnamplus at www.vietnamplus.vn and the agency’s official website vnanet.vn.

The department also runs two daily news programmes in English and Chinese and two weekly news programmes in French and Spanish on the VNA’s TV channel VNews. The programmes are shared with several foreign news agencies with which VNA has signed cooperation agreements.

The Le Courrier du Vietnam, the only newspaper in French in Vietnam, is published in both electronic and printed forms. The electronic version receives hundreds of thousands of visits each month, while the print version, published weekly, is also the only Vietnamese newspaper in French that has reached the Francophone community in Europe and the world.

The VNA’s Việt Nam News has grown into the leading English-language newspaper in the country. The daily newspaper with 28 pages is published seven days a week besides a monthly publication – the Outlook. Readers can also read the newspaper online, at vietnamnews.vn.

Another important publication of the agency is the Vietnam Pictorial magazine, published in 8 languages – Vietnamese, English, Chinese, Russian, French, Spanish, Japanese and Lao, in both print and electronic versions.

The magazine recently launched the Vietnam-Korean Times, the only newspaper in Korean in Vietnam.

The VNA Publishing House contributes to the external information service via many bilingual and foreign language books, helping diversify publications designed for foreign audiences.

As the country deepens its international integration process, all units involved in external information service are tasked with improving their coverage to promote Vietnam as a peaceful, stable, friendly country with dynamic development which is an active and responsible member of the international community.

As the leading provider of external information service, the VNA has made it a priority to constantly enrich the content and renew the format of its publications with a view of enhancing the coverage and efficiency of all information channels in line with the Party and State’s policy.

The agency has also made use of information technology such as applications for mobile devices and social websites to popularise its publications.

The first National External Information Service Awards 2014 is organized by the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Popularisation and Education and the Steering Committee for External Information Service.

The Vietnam News Agency chairs the 2014 competition. Leading news and press agencies in the external information service will take turns in chairing the event.

The awards will honour the best works either in Vietnamese or foreign languages intended for foreigners and overseas Vietnamese in the four categories of print media, radio and television broadcast and electronic media.

The 2014 awards will be announced on May 2, 2015 and presented at a ceremony on May 19, 2015.

The Commission for Popularisation and Education and the Steering Committee for External Information Service plan to organise the event every year and extend the scope of the awards to other fields related to foreign information and communications, including programmes, events and publications.-VNA