HÀ NỘI — The Prime Minister on Tuesday handed over the decision appointing Deputy General Director of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) Vũ Việt Trang as the General Director of the agency.

On behalf of the Government, Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính congratulated Trang on her new position, handing over Decision No 1469/QD-TTg. Trang is the first female General Director of the VNA.

The appointment of Ms Vũ Việt Trang to the position of General Director of VNA marked her process of personal growth, and the growth of VNA as well, Chính said.

The Prime Minister asked relevant ministries and sectors to coordinate with the VNA and its new General Director so that the agency continues to inherit its glorious tradition and heroic history, while constantly innovating and maintaining its position as a strategic information agency of the Party and State. 

The new General Director of VNA, born October 16, 1969, graduated from the Việt Nam National University - Hà Nội, majoring in English, in 1993.

She started working at the news agency in 1993 as a sub-editor at the News for Foreign Service Department.

In 2004, she was promoted to Head of the English Desk at the News for Foreign Service Department and Assistant to the Department’s Director.

In 2005, Trang was appointed Deputy Director of the Editorial Secretariat and External Relations Department of the VNA.

She became Director of the Editorial Secretariat and External Relations Department in 2011.

On November 17, 2017, Trang was appointed Deputy General Director of VNA by the then Prime Minister.

During her career, she has been awarded the Prime Minister’s Certificates of Merit several times, for contributions to the coverage of the APEC Leaders’ Meeting and related meetings in 2006 and the communication drive on the 12th National Party Congress in 2016, for outstanding work performance in 2018, and for her role in the communication drive on the Vietnam ASEAN Year 2020.

She was admitted to the Party in 2000, and has been a member of the news agency’s Party Committee since 2014 and a member of the standing board of the news agency’s Party Committee since 2015.

During her work, Trang maintained her viewpoint that the news organisations, including the VNA, must stay consistent with the principles of journalism - verifying sources before publishing to ensure that the information reaches readers accurately and comprehensively.

She said the news agency has been and will continue to improve its information processing and working methods so that information reaches the public promptly and quickly.

The news agency has always been a pioneer and key force in broadcasting information about the official views and guidelines of the Party and State to the public, creating consensus and trust in society.

During the past years, VNA’s news units have all taken concrete steps in implementing digital transformation and in fact, have developed a full range of digital media based on modern technology.

With representative offices in all 63 cities and provinces nationwide and 30 overseas bureaus across the five continents, the VNA has a strong contingent of reporters working across the country and in most of the key areas around the world. This is a unique advantage that no other news organisation in Việt Nam has.

With more than 60 media products made by more than 1,000 reporters and editors out of the 2,300-plus strong staff, the VNA is the news 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 Vietnam News Agency has constantly promoted the synergy of a major national multimedia news agency in providing source information to domestic and international news agencies and at the same time providing direct information to the public with a system of about 60 information products of various types,” said Trang.

The VNA also acts as a bridge to bring people's opinions, reflecting the reality of society to leaders of the Party, State and functional agencies; reflect the objective opinions of international friends, foreign experts and scholars on the process of national construction and defence.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

With the function of a major multimedia agency, a member of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 prevention and control, the VNA has organised the methodical and professional deployment of information on COVID-19 prevention and control with close coordination of its news units, especially the system of 93 representatives’ office at home and abroad.

Right from the end of January 2020, leaders of the VNA have developed a master plan for this line of news. During the implementation process, the VNA leaders had a shift in focus in line with the pandemic's developments and were flexible in adjusting the amount and level of information so that the public was aware of the danger of the pandemic but at the same time, not panic.

Trang said 30 years of working at the Vietnam News Agency has helped her understand the core values ​​and glorious traditions of the news industry, the coordination between reporters and editors, between information units and publishing units, the relationship between internal information and external information. 

She said she has also learned from the previous generations of leaders and the current members of the Board of Directors about working methods, information organisation, decision-making skills, and from colleagues.

Trang affirmed that the work of major news organisations, including the Vietnam News Agency, has made practical contributions to Việt Nam's success in disease control, maintaining its position as the official information channel, repelling the problem of fake news. — VNS