The Vietnam News Agency (VNA) has launched its e-newspaper VietnamPlus (www.vietnamplus.vn) with an aim to provide better information services for local and foreign readers. VietnamPlus will provide more news to readers than any other daily e-newspaper in Viet Nam.
Its coverage will range from politics and socio-economics to culture-sports and science and technology from Viet Nam and around the world, said Le Quoc Minh, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief. The wide range of stories will reach out to people of all walks of life, not only those interested in official political news. [Link]
With a huge library of data from the past decade containing millions of news stories and photos, VietnamPlus will facilitate the information searches, he said. VietnamPlus will benefit from a network of 1,100 VNA domestic reporters and editors in 63 provinces and cities, as well as 27 overseas bureaus located on five continents.
This is the first time an e-newspaper in Viet Nam will allow readers to specify their interests and demands and even change the colour of the whole website, Minh said.
At the launch ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem applauded the VNA for maintaining its role as a professional press agency in covering the diversified issues that concern readers most, without commercial benefit. The news agency has resolutely observed copy-rights and ensured the provision of timely and correct information, he said.
"The VNA needs to invest more in human resources as well as technology in order to improve VietnamPlus in both content and form; it must strive to become one of the leading information websites in the country and the region about the land and people of Viet Nam. In particular, it should disseminate information about the Party and State policies to readers both inside and outside the country," Khiem said.
VietnamPlus is expected to become a leading Vietnamese e-newspaper and to deliver the latest and most reliable domestic and international news in four different languages - Vietnamese, English, French and Spanish. It will help foreign readers around the world understand more about the country and its people, said VNA Executive Deputy General Director Tran Mai Huong.
Fierce competition emerged in the market economy and the rapid development of information technology requires VNA to provide faster, more accurate, interesting and diversified news, he said. At present there are nearly 10 online newspapers in Viet Nam. VnExpress became the first e-newspaper in the country in 2003.
