“Le Courrier du Vietnam”, a weeklymagazine published by the Vietnam News Agency, was invited to representFrancophone media in the Asian-Pacific region at an internationalFrancophone journalism forum in Montreal, Canada .

Launched on October 8, the forum provides Vietnam ’s only Frenchlanguage magazine the chance to share its experience in developing apopular publication in a country where French is hardly used today, andto report on the Vietnam News Agency’s efforts to use IT to reinventitself in order to become a modern multimedia agency.

Theforum, inspired by the International Organisation of La Francophonie(OIF), brought together more than 50 participants, including managers ofradio and television broadcasting organisations, journalists, mediaexperts and academics from French-speaking countries.

Speaking atthe event, Canadian Minister of International Development and Ministerfor La Francophonie, Christian Paradis, said Francophone media outletsshould take full advantage of the progress made in the field ofinformation technology in a bid to adapt to reader’s habits.

Duringthe three-day forum, delegates will evaluate the current status ofjournalism in the French-speaking world, examine the effects oftechnology on transmitting information, and predict multimedia trendswith a view to helping the Francophone journalism community adapt to thenew media landscape.

The ideas raised during the forum will beused to draft a strategic development plan for the media sector in thenext decade.

The event ends on October 10.-VNA