Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has signed decisions on the appointmentof two Deputy General Directors of the Vietnam News Agency (VNA).

Vu Viet Trang, headof the VNA’s Editorial Secretariat and International Relations Department, andLe Quoc Minh, Editor-in-Chief of VietnamPlus, an e-newspaper of the VNA, were appointedto the posts under the PM’s Decisions No. 1830/QD-TTg and 1831/QD-TTg,respectively.

The VNA is a Governmentalagency which is responsible for providing official information and documents ofthe Party and State, according to the Government’s recently-released Decree No118/2017/ND-CP.

The decree also regulatesthat the VNA provides information in service of the Party leadership and Statemanagement; and collect and provide news through various forms of press andmultimedia for mass media agencies, the public and readers of all kinds at homeand abroad.

The VNA is managed by theMinistry of Information and Communications in terms of press, broadcasting andtelevision.

The VNA is also responsiblefor collecting and compiling information for public consumption and referencevia various forms of media and multimedia in service of the Party leadershipand State management; announcing official viewpoints of the State on “hot”issues; adjusting direction regarding information that is not in line withnational interests; correcting wrongful information; and issuing announcementsto reject distorted information when necessary.

Performing its function as akey national external news agency, the VNA collects, compiles and providesinformation about Vietnam in different languages for domestic agencies andorganisations and foreign media outlets as well as for foreigners andVietnamese people abroad.

The VNA is also tasked withproviding information and publishing news materials for ethnic minority peoplein their languages.

It is in charge of archivinginformation, building an information and data bank and managing national photomaterials; and providing information and coordinating with relevant agencies toprovide information in services of national security and defence.

According to the decree, theVNA has a system of news units including the Domestic News Department, theWorld News Department and the Press Photography Department. It also has severalnewspapers, both print and online, including the Viet Nam News, Le Courrier duVietnam and VietnamPlus. The VNA has representative offices for the Southand the Central and Central Highlands regions, in cities and provincesnationwide as well as major cities worldwide.

It also has news supportunits including the VNA Technical Centre, the VNA Training Centre, the VNAMedia Development Centre, the VNA Informatics Centre and the VNA InternationalCooperation Centre, and five consultancy and functional units to assist the VNAGeneral Director.

The VNA has a GeneralDirector and a maximum of four Deputy General Directors.

The VNA General Director andDeputy General Directors are appointed and dismissed by the Prime Minister inline with laws.-VNA