Bùi Trường Giang, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education and standing deputy head of the Steering Committee on External Information Work delivers a speech at the press conference. — VNA/VNS Photo Phương Hoa

HÀ NỘI — The Steering Committee on External Information Work, the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education, and Vietnam Television (VTV) launched the National External Information Service Awards 2019 at a press conference on Wednesday.

Addressing the press conference, Bùi Trường Giang, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education and deputy head of the Steering Committee on External Information Work, said Việt Nam has made many important achievements in 2019.
The country has also made contributions to international affairs, such as joining peacekeeping activities of the UN, dispatching a Level 2 field hospital to the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, hosting the second US-Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Summit, and being elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security for 2020-21.
“Those achievements testify to the open external policy of Việt Nam, and prove Việt Nam is a reliable friend and partner in the international community… At the same time, they are also a rich source of information and inspiration for press works serving the external information service,” Giang said.  
He noted that after five years of launching, the National External Information Service Awards have received increasing attention from both domestic and foreign journalists.
Submissions can be in any language and must be published as an article of a print newspaper, online newspaper or website (licensed by competent agencies), radio broadcast, television broadcast, press photo, landscape photo or book. They must have been broadcast via licensed mass media in Việt Nam or in a foreign country from January 1 to December 31, 2019. The awards will be announced and presented in June 2020.
Entries must be sent to the Standing Agency of the National External Information Service Awards 2019 before March 31, 2020.
In 2018, the organising board received 1,000 entries in 13 languages (Vietnamese, English, French, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Khmer, Lao and Mongolian). The organising board awarded 90 works, with eight first prizes, 17 second, 25 third and 40 consolation prizes presented. — VNS