Decision issued on developing national print, electronic newspapers for foreign service

Three printed and electronic newspapers of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) will be developed into national newspapers for foreign service in the 2022-2030 period, under a new decision of the Prime Minister.

At the award ceremony of the 14th National Press Awards 2019.
At the award ceremony of the 14th National Press Awards 2019.

The three newspapers named under Decision 1976/QD-TTg are the English-language daily Viet Nam News, the multi-language magazine Vietnam Pictorial and the multi-language electronic newspaper VietnamPlus, all run by the State-own VNA.

The decision details the targets, tasks and solutions for the development of those newspapers.

Accordingly, the Viet Nam News will increase the number and improve the quality of features, special columns and pages, raise the number of readers of its online version and try to reach key areas and big powers in the world.

Meanwhile, the number of countries where the printed version of Vietnam Pictorial is distributed free of charge will be increased from 140 at present to 160, with priority given to areas along the border between Vietnam and Laos and China, and Latin American countries. After 2025, the number of printed copies will be reduced by about 10 percent each year while the electronic version will be developed in 10 languages.

The VietnamPlus will strive to become an electronic newspaper with the most integrated forms of information. From the current five languages (Vietnamese, English, French, Spanish, Chinese and Russian), the newspaper is to develop the Korean version in 2023, the Japanese version in 2026 and German in 2029. It aims to become one of the top five Vietnamese electronic newspapers with highest views from abroad.

Among solutions and tasks for the development of national newspapers for foreign services in 2022-2030, raising both quantity and quality of articles is deemed very important. Multi-media products will be developed based on digital technology along the trend of modern journalism, and social media will be utilized to popularize information published by the newspapers.

The distribution channels of the print newspapers will be diversified, making use of diplomatic, tourism, investment channels, as well as cooperation and information exchange with international news agencies and press. Plans will be built to popularize the national newspapers for foreign services based on specific targets of each period.

The decision also mentions the promotion of the use of modern journalism technology and multi-media, along with international cooperation in information and personnel training, in the development of the newspapers.