Granma's Deputy Editor-in-Chief Oscar Alberto Sanchez Serra visits VNA's Technical Centre. VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — A delegation of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) led by Deputy General Director Nguyễn Tuấn Hùng held a working session with representatives from Granma, the official daily newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuban Central Committee headed by Deputy Editor-in-Chief Oscar Alberto Sanchez Serra in Hà Nội on Tuesday.

He highlighted that the VNA is one of six key media agencies in Việt Nam, tasked with delivering the country’s official information to domestic and international press systems. It has 63 representative offices in all provinces and cities nationwide and 30 others overseas.

For many years, the VNA has maintained close and reliable partnerships with two Cuban media agencies, namely Prensa Latina and the Cuban News Agency (ACN). Its representative office in Havana has consistently fulfilled its mission of external information, promoting Vietnam’s image to the Cuban people, and providing accurate and timely news about Cuba and the region.

According to Hùng, his agency has recently promoted digital transformation in its news production and dissemination processes. It has established a steering committee for digital transformation and developed annual plans for this task. It is focusing on creating highly interactive, multimedia products tailored for digital journalism and spread across multiple platforms, effectively delivering the messages of the Party and State leaders as well as key national priorities in the new era. Notably, the VNA is also implementing new AI-powered services to enhance the quality and efficiency of its information activities.

For his part, Alberto Sanchez Serra said that Granma was founded on October 3, 1965, based on the merger of two revolutionary newspapers - Hoy and Revolución.

As the official voice of the Communist Party of Cuba, Granma currently employs around 210 staff, reporters, and workers, 70 per cent of whom are under 35. The newspaper has correspondents in every province and city across Cuba. Recently, it has focused on developing a converged newsroom model and modern journalism practices. With goals to combat fake news, persuade the public, and continually improve, Granma aims to expand its reach on social media and other information platforms to counteract disinformation and wrong allegations from hostile forces.

The Granma delegation expressed their desire to learn with and share experience with the VNA in digital transformation, particularly in modernising news production and distribution systems and applying AI technologies to improve information production efficiency.

As part of the visit, they also toured several VNA units to explore their operational models. VNS