A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed by VNA General Director Nguyễn Đức Lợi and Polish Ambassador to Việt Nam Barbara Szymanowska in Hà Nội yesterday. — VNA/VNS Photo Nhan Sáng

HÀ NỘI — Vietnam News Agency (VNA) and the Polish Press Agency (PAP) have agreed to exchange information and enhance professional co-operation, resuming their ties after a long interruption. 

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect was signed by VNA General Director Nguyễn Đức Lợi and Polish Ambassador to Việt Nam Barbara Szymanowska in Hà Nội yesterday. 

The signing was witnessed by President Trần Đại Quang and his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda who is on a State visit to Việt Nam from November 27-30. 

Under the MoU, the two agencies will exchange text news, photos and video clips in English for the purpose of publishing them on their news channels. They will also support each other’s correspondents working in either country. 

The VNA and PAP had first signed a co-operative agreement in 1978, but it was voided by historical changes. 

The signing of the new document is in line with the VNA’s policy to intensify international co-operation in order to develop its foreign news services, and to access direct information about Central Europe, where the agency is yet to establish a bureau. 

The co-operation also aligns with the nation’s foreign policy on establishing diverse, multilateral relations. 
Established in 1918, the PAP is Poland’s largest media agency with about 300 reporters. 

State-owned VNA boasts a network of 63 bureaus in all the cities and provinces nationwide and 30 overseas bureaus across five continents. 

With more than 1,000 reporters and editors among its 2,400-strong staff, products, the VNA is now the largest producer of media products in the country. It produces more than 60 products including bulletins, photographs, television programmes, dailies, weeklies, monthlies, magazines, pictorials, books, TV programmes, e-newspapers and information programmes on mobile platforms. 

The agency also delivers news in the largest number of languages. In addition to official Vietnamese-language news items provided to domestic and foreign media outlets, articles are published in English, Chinese, French and Spanish, not to mention print and e-newspapers in four other languages, Lao, Korean, Japanese and Russian. — VNS