Thirty years have passed since Khampin Sishophavong and other former staff of Laos news agency Khaosan Pathet Lao (KPL) attended a special class held in 1981-1985 period organised by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) to improve their professional skills. (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - Thirty five years have passed since KhamphanSuvannakha attended a special class organised by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
The journalist from Laos news agency Khaosan Pathet Lao (KPL) and hiscolleagues were in Vietnam to help develop their skills.
Between 1981 and 1984 Vietnam was their home. Each day they would listen andlearn from staff at VNA as they tried to improve.
And for one of his colleagues, the course has extra special meaning because itwas during his time in Vietnam he fell in love with a local woman who becamehis wife.
Second family
VNA staff even became his ‘surrogate’ family during the wedding ceremony as hisown family back in Laos were unable to attend. The couple now live together inVientiane.
According to Khamphan, what made the class “special” was it was the first andthe only one that the VNA provided long-term training for up to four years,exclusive for Lao and Cambodia news agency staff. Other courses last onlyseveral months, he said.
“It was between 1981-1985, when Vietnam faced huge difficulties and shortages,however, to help oversee learners like me achieve the best results, the VNAleaders created the best conditions for us,” Khamphan recalled.
To ensure the learners were treated well, the VNA also arranged accommodationand a chef for them.
Every year, Lao students from other schools were not allowed to return home,but those at VNA could still return home twice a year, Khamphan said.
VNA gave each student a Thong Nhat bicycle for travelling, he said, adding thatthe bicycle was a fortune and very precious to help them explore the city.
“To help the students have full knowledge and achieve the best result, the VNAeven assigned people for tutoring them at home. Teachers also pay specialattention to the students.”
If a student didn’t attend the class for some reasons, the teachers would go tosee him and give him the lessons at home, he said.
Khamphan attributed the success to the combination of theory and practice, thededication of teachers from the VNA and the Hanoi University of Science andTechnology (HUST) as well as the material and spiritual support from VNAmanagement.
“The knowledge that the teachers of the VNA and the HUST have laid out afoundation for me to develop and grow at work in the following years,” he said.
Khampin Sishophavong, Khamphan’s classmate, who later became editor-in-chief ofFinance newspaper under Lao Ministry of Finance, agreed.
Vivid memories
For him, the passage of decades has not erased the memory of the days when VNAexperts taught him.
"Sometimes the teachers [from VNA] would wake me up for class,” he said.
“It is indeed very special. Perhaps nowhere can you see such dedicatedteachers.”
According to Khampin, thanks to the enthusiasm and dedication of the VNA, theLao students on his course completed their studies with good results andcontribute to the development of KPL after returning home.
“The application of the knowledge gained at that time helped the KPL comparedto other domestic agencies in terms of technical issues,” he said.
Not only providing long-term training for KPL staff, the VNA also sent expertsto guide KPL officials on how to apply what they had learned.
One of the most special things was that during his studying at the VNA he fellin love with a girl from Hanoi who later became his wife. Now the couple isleading a happy life in Vientiane.
When he got married in 1985, it was the VNA’s staff who acted as the groom’sfamily, Khampin said.
According to him, the cooperation between the two countries’ news agencies isvery close, sincere and special.
When asked the relationship between the two news agencies on occasion of VNA’s75 anniversary, Sounthone Khanthavong, former KPL General Director spoke highlyof the VNA’s support to KPL.
The relationship and cooperation between VNA and KPL over the past decades,including personnel training, technical infrastructure and professionalexpertise have laid solid foundation for KPL to better perform its tasks, hesaid.
“This is not only a testament for sound relationship between the two major newsagencies of each country but contributing to preserving the traditionalfriendship, special relations and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam andLaos,” Sounthone said./.
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