HÀ NỘI — The State-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA) won 17 out of 67 prizes of the National External Information Service Awards 2017 which were announced at a ceremony held at VNA’s headquarters in Hà Nội on Thursday. 

The 17 prizes comprise three first prizes, four second prizes, four third prizes and six consolidation prizes. 

Việt Nam News – the national English language daily, the Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Region Pictorial, and photojournalist Nhan Hữu Sáng of the Press Photography Department are among the first-prize winners. 

Other first prizes were presented to individuals and groups from Thanh Niên (Young People) and Nhân Dân (The People) newspapers, the Quảng Ngãi Radio and Television Station, and Vietnam Television. 

The award ceremony, the fourth of its edition, also honoured 15 second prizes, 18 third prizes and 27 consolidation prizes, in the categories of print newspapers and electronic newspapers in Vietnamese and foreign languages, as well as radio broadcasting, television broadcasting, press photography and literature. 

The organising board received 970 entries in 15 languages – Vietnamese, English, French, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Bulgarian, Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Lao, Khmer, Slovakian, German and Thai. 

Of the entries, 22 come from foreigners. The others hail from press agencies and newspapers at both central and grassroots levels, and from overseas Vietnamese. 

The ceremony saw the attendance of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Phạm Bình Minh, head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Publicity and Education Võ Văn Thưởng who is also head of the central steering committee for external information work, and head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyễn Văn Bình, among others. 

Addressing the ceremony, Minh congratulated the winners of the award, which, he said, has helped enhance connectivity and coordination between foreign news service units, as well as between domestic and foreign news services. 

The 2017 contest’s success has not only reflected the prestige of the award but also affirmed the important role of the external information work in national construction and development, he said. 

Minh also underlined the need to increase information in foreign languages, especially news about the country’s socio-economic development, national sovereignty protection, guidelines and policies, while stepping up the application of information-technology in the work. 

More attention should be paid to personnel training, he said, suggesting that the award should be rolled out on a larger scale to promote its prestige. — VNS