Hanoi (VNA) - The Steering Committee on External Information Work, the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education, and theVietnam Television (VTV) launched the National ExternalInformation Service Awards 2019 at a press conference onNovember 27.

Addressing thepress conference, Bui Truong Giang, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s Commission for Information and Education andstanding deputy head of the Steering Committee onExternal Information Work, said Vietnam has reaped many importantachievements in 2019.

The country hasalso made remarkable contributions to international affairs, such as joiningpeace-keeping activities of the UN, dispatching its Level 2 field hospital tothe UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, hosting the second US-DemocraticPeople’s Republic of Korea Summit, and being elected as a non-permanent memberof the UN Security Council for 2020-2021 with 192 out of the total 193 votes.

“Thoseachievements testify to the open external policy of Vietnam, and prove that Vietnamis a reliable friend and partner in the international community… At the sametime, they are also a rich source of information and inspiration for pressworks serving the external information service,” Giang said.  

He noted thatafter five years of launching, the National External InformationService Awards have received increasing attention and responsefrom both domestic and foreign journalists and authors.

Submissions can be inany language and must be published in the forms of an article of printednewspaper, online newspaper and website (licensed by competent agencies), radiobroadcast, television broadcast, press photo, landscape photo or book. Theymust have been broadcast via licensed mass media in Vietnam or in a foreigncountry from January 1 to December 31, 2019. The awards will be announced and presented in June 2020.

Entries must be sentto 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 formsranging from print newspaper articles, online articles, radio broadcasts,television broadcasts, press photos, landscape photos and books. The works werepublished in 13 languages (Vietnamese, English, French, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, Khmer, Lao, Mongolian).  The organising board awarded 90 works, with eight first prizes, 17 second, 25 third and 40 consolation prizes presented./.