Vietnam attends 33rd OANA executive board meeting

Deputy Director General of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA), Nguyen Duc Loi, is attending the 33rd Executive Board Meeting of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agency (OANA) which opened in Ulaanbataar, Mongolia, on June 27.

In his welcome speech, Mongolian Prime Minister Suhbaatar Batbold affirmed that news agencies play important roles in every country’s history. Their importance remains unchanged today although the world has been experiencing increasingly fierce information competition.
He also said that informing the world about developments in the region, which has been leading the world in terms of its populations, sizes of its territories and speed of development, as well as its delivery of domestic and foreign news to the public, is an honourable and proud duty of OANA journalists.
Opening the meeting, General Director of the Anadolu Agency (AA), Dr. Hilmi Bengi, who is currently holding the Presidency of OANA, said the meeting, under the theme “Content quality improvement of news items disseminated among member countries and Upgrading multi-media news exchange management”, is an opportunity for member agencies to discuss how to make OANA more dynamic and effective.
For that purpose, members are requested to focus discussion on the upgrade of the OANA website, enabling member agencies to upload text, photo as well as video information to the site, and the organisation of training programmes for journalists of member agencies in the future.
VNA Deputy Director General Loi stressed the need to promote the exchange of multi-media products among OANA member agencies so as to enable them to access diversified information sources and reduce the production costs to better serve local audiences.
He pledged that with the launching of the English broadcast on the VNA Television Channel (Vnews) in the near future, VNA will play a more active part in multi-media service of OANA to continue carrying out the original objective of the organisation of creating a more free flow of news and information in Asia and the Pacific.
Also on the agenda of the meeting, the participants are to have cordial meetings with the Mongolian Parliament Speaker and the Mayor of Ulaanbaatar.
Over the past five decades of development, OANA now comprises of 42 member agencies from 33 countries in Asia and the Pacific.

As proposed by several members, OANA began experimental exchange of multi-media products as of last November.

Vice President visits Agent Orange victims, disabled kids

Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan yesterday, June 28, handed out gifts to disabled children at the Hoa Binh Humanitarian Centre and Hoa Binh Village in Thanh Xuan District, about 7km from Ha Noi’s city centre.

The vice president praised the centre’s staff, whom she said had managed to combine caring for the disabled with their education and training.

Since its establishment four years ago, the Hoa Binh Centre has looked after 173 disadvantaged children, 71 of whom were victims of dioxin while the rest were orphans and street children.

The centre takes in children from 48 poor districts in the northern and central mountainous regions.

It is expected that three children from each district will take up residence at the centre this year.

Meanwhile, Hoa Binh Village for the disabled, which was established in 1991, has helped to rehabilitate about 2,000 Agent Orange victims and thousands of other disadvantaged children.

Doan asked the Ha Noi People’s Committee to help upgrade the village’s facilities and to send more medical staff to work there with disabled children.

“Existing health workers, including doctors and nurses in the village, can only meet 50 per cent of the demand,” Doan said. The Vice President presented VND50 million ($2,380) to the Hoa Binh Centre and VND60 million ($2,850) to Hoa Binh Village.

Lao magazine works for all-round ties with Vietnam

Editor in chief Bounchang Phengsavath of the Lao Alounmay magazine is willing to strengthen comprehensive relations with Vietnam , especially Ho Chi Minh City.

Phengsavath, also Deputy Head of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee’s Information and Training Commission, met with Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam, Head of the HCM City Party Committee’s Department for Information and Education and Chairman of the municipal People’s Commission, on June 28 during the magazine delegation’s visit to the city.
For her part, Tam expressed strong belief in stronger relations between the two nations after the Lao delegation’s visit.
“The visit will contribute to strengthening special relations and cooperation between the Vietnamese and Lao peoples, especially those between HCM City and the LPRP CC’s Information and Training Commission and the Alounmay magazine,” she said.
She also emphasised the important contribution made by mass media to the political and socio-economic developments in Vietnam’s largest economic hub.
Press agencies serve as an important channel of information to support municipal leaders to fulfil their tasks, said the senior official.
Earlier, the Lao guests held a working session with counterparts from the Communist Magazine to share experience in journalism. The meeting between the two magazines has been held annually since 1990.

Cypriot delegation praises Communist achievements

Vietnam will continue to nourish its traditional relationship with Cyprus, said Politburo member Nguyen Xuan Phuc while receiving a Cyprus’ delegation from the Progressive Party of the Working People (AKEL) in Hanoi on June 28.

Venizelos Zannattos, politburo member of AKEL and head of the Central Economy Committee, who led the visiting delegation, said Vietnam’s achievements set an example of communist success.
He briefed Phuc who is also minister-chair of the Government Office on AKEL’s recent activities and Cyprus’s current situation. He wished Vietnam further success in implementing the resolution of the 11th National Party Congress for the benefit of national construction, defence and development.
The Cypriots also held talks with Hoang Binh Quan, member of the Party Central Committee and head of its External Relations Commission.

Drug-related crimes remain complicated

Although drug prevention in the northwestern region has seen significant achievements, the situation remains very complicated, said Major General Vu Hung Vuong.

General Vuong, Vice Head of the Department for Crime Prevention under the Ministry of Public Security, said this at a conference to review the plan by the national committee on drug prevention in the northwest, in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong.

Drug prevention forces have discovered many cases of large amounts of drugs being smuggled and transported from Laos because prevention efforts have proved ineffective, he said, adding that the criminals’ fierce resistance is also a challenge for authorities.

Since mid-2010, four drug prevention officials have been killed and tens of others have been wounded, the general said.

Addressing the meeting, Deputy PM Trong, who is also Head of the National Committee for HIV/AIDS, Drugs and Prostitution Prevention and Control, said the situation may become more complicated and drug criminals will resist more strongly.

Effective prevention and control of drug smuggling and trafficking in a hot spot such as the northwestern region will contribute greatly to the nationwide struggle against drugs.

Deputy PM Trong asked related ministries, agencies and localities to implement the draft law on amendments and supplements to some articles of the Law on Drug Prevention and Control, focusing on increasing the role of communal People’s Committees and improving the management of rehabilitated drug addicts.

He also asked ministries and agencies to strengthen supervision and inspection of drugs along the borders and border gates and propose appropriate amendments to laws and policies related to drugs.

CPV congratulates Cambodian People’s Party

The Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee has sent a congratulatory message to the Cambodia People’s Party (CPP) Central Committee on the 60th founding anniversary of the party (June 28).

The message says the CPV and Vietnamese people congratulates the CPP on its great important achievements and believes that the CPP will overcome difficulties and challenges to lead the Cambodian people to gain greater achievements in national construction and development.

The Vietnamese Party, State and people will exert their best together with the Cambodian Party and people to preserve and constantly develop the fine neighbourliness, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation and long-term stability between the two Parties, States, and peoples for mutual interests and for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world, the message says.

Party General Secretary and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong congratulated CPP Chairman Chea Sim, CPP Honorary Chairman Heng Samrin and CPP Vice Chairman Hun Sen.

VNN/VOV/VNS/VNA