Vietnam News Agency's sustainable development in digital era

Hanoi (VNA) - Facing the rapid development of the fourth Industrial Revolution and the fierce competition between press agencies and between the press and social media, the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) has continued to innovate itself towards improving the quality, professionalism, and effectiveness, and well perform its duties as a reliable strategic information agency of the Party and State, VNA General Director Vu Viet Trang has said.

On September 15, 1945, the VNA officially aired the full text of the Declaration of Independence with the list of members of the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, now the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, in Vietnamese, French and English languages.

That sacred moment has been boldly imprinted in the country's information history, marking the birth of the first news agency of Vietnam.

During the 78 years of accompanying the country, the VNA, honoured to be named by President Ho Chi Minh, has continuously grown, becoming a reputable news agency in the region following the model of a strong and modern national multimedia complex with all types of information.

As one of the country's major press agencies, the VNA has paid due attention to applying technologies in its operations. From late 1984 to early 1985, a group of five engineers from the VNA's microprocessor group successfully developed the first 8-bit computer, which was able to process Vietnamese language in basic stages such as: typing, displaying, printing on dot matrix printers, managing and transmitting documents in Vietnamese language.

On August 1, 1985, the agency’s high-speed electronic information transmission line (microcomputer) between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City was officially launched, becoming the main information flow on the North - South route of the VNA. This event made Vietnamese one of the languages processed directly on computers. The fact that the VNA was awarded the Gold Medal at the second national science and technology fair in September 1985 marked a remarkable progress in the agency's technical infrastructure.

In 1998, as soon as Vietnam gained access to the Internet, the VNA made debut its information websites and Vietnam News newspaper, which were the first information websites in Vietnam.

The VNA currently operates under the model of multimedia complex with 15 news units for domestic and foreign services, along with five news supporting centres, a publishing house, two printing companies, the VNA representative office in the South, the VNA representative office in the Central – Central Highlands region; and functional units.

With more than 60 media products, it now is the press agency with the largest number of information products and forms in the country, from source news in the forms of text, photo, television, infographics and audio to publications such as dailies, weeklies, magazines, pictorials, books, e-newspapers, websites, online and print newspapers, and information on mobile platforms and social networks, among others.

The VNA has performed the functions of a national news agency providing updated news about all social aspects in Vietnam and the world for domestic and foreign media. It has also satisfied the public’s information demand through diverse and attractive media products on modern platforms. The VNA has retained its position as the mainstream information source guiding public opinion and as the strategic and trustworthy information centre of the Party and State, contributing to national development and defence.

Amidst the strong development of the fourth industrial revolution, digital transformation has created conditions for the news agency to grasp the public's information needs more quickly through applications and direct interactive features. Entering the age of 78, in 2023, the VNA has launched new technology products such as: multilingual automatic reading app, and text and photo information product packages with integrated videos.

Nguyen Duc Vu, Director of the VNA Technical Centre, said that in order to concretise the agency's development strategy, the application of technologies, especially artificial intelligence, for audio and video information has been promoted. The VNA has built its own multilingual automatic reading system with six languages and will gradually integrate it into all information distribution channels such as newspapers, electronic information pages, and mobile apps.

New platforms such as a smart speaker and a smart screen will soon be carried out with the aim of creating a new way of accessing information for readers through voice interaction, he added./.