HÀ NỘI — General Director of Vietnam News Agency (VNA) Nguyễn Đức Lợi and President and Editor-in-Chief of Japan’s Kyodo News Masaki Fukuyama have shared their delight at the fruitful partnership between the two sides through the exchange of news. 

During their talks in Hà Nội on Wednesday, Lợi spoke highly of the rapid and accurate news of Japan and the world Kyodo News has provided for the VNA. 

He underscored that news from Kyodo News are an important source of world news used by the VNA and other media agencies in Việt Nam. 

He briefed his guest on the APEC Year 2017 hosted by Việt Nam, affirming that the VNA is willing to provide Kyodo News with information on the event. The VNA leader expressed his hope that the Japanese press outlet will increase the publication of news on Việt Nam.

The VNA leader also expressed his belief that the two sides share experience in media production processes as well as news exchange. 
Masaki Fukuyama, who is visiting at the invitation of the VNA leader, said that Japan will host the Rugby World Cup 2019 as well as the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2020 and the two sides agreed to work closely in covering the events. 
Both sides will also keep each other updated on digital services and new technology, they agreed. 
The guest introduced a number of major changes in Kyodo News recently, including four projects in digital news production and new services. 
Along with supporting their respective correspondents, the two news agencies also hope to expand and diversify news exchange. 
They said that news agencies in the world should strive to adapt to the new media environment of the digital era. They expected that exchanging experience will help both agencies overcome challenges. 
The two leaders also agreed to support each other at regional and international media forums, especially the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA). 
The VNA and Kyodo News set up their relations in the late 1980s. Under their agreement, Kyodo News has supplied free Japanese and English news, and photos with English captions to the VNA, while the VNA has provided Vietnamese and English news and photos with English captions to Kyodo News. 

They have agreed to give each other professional assistance, while signing deals on personnel training and multimedia communication development. 
The Government-run VNA is now the media agency with the largest number of products in Việt Nam with more than 60 media products. 

The agency also delivers news in the largest number of languages. In addition Vietnamese-language news provided for domestic and foreign media outlets, stories for foreign services are written in English, Chinese, French and Spanish – not to mention print and e-newspapers in eight other foreign languages, the four above plus Lao, Korean, Japanese and Russian. 
The VNA maintains partnerships with more than 40 international media organisations. It is a member of the OANA, the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool and the ASEAN News Exchange. — VNS