Conclusion No.57-KL/TW is an important legal document, affirming the Party's consistent policy on the role and importance of external information work. It has a strategic orientation and a basis for agencies and units to develop and perfect mechanisms, policies, and apparatus for external information service.

In February 2012, the Politburo issued Conclusion No. 16-KL/TW on the external information service development strategy for the period of 2010 - 2020. After ten years of implementing Conclusion No. 16-KL/TW, the external information work achieved many important results, contributing to enhancing Vietnam's position and reputation in the international arena, protecting the Party's ideological foundation, protecting the regime, and serving the cause of national construction and development.

Agencies and localities were asked to develop action programmes and plans to effectively implement the Conclusion. Photo: TTXVN

The Steering Committee for External Information Service made changes, achieving many important results in both organisation and implementation of political tasks. The coordination between member agencies of the steering committee and between the central steering committee and localities and press agencies has been increasingly strengthened and proved effective.

However, the external information work has been facing difficulties and limitations, especially in the new situations with complicated unpredictable changes in the world and the region. Thus, the external information work is required to keep innovating to catch up with trends of the era of science and technology.

The issuance of Conclusion No.57-KL/TW shows the attention that Party and State leaders have paid to the external information work.

Speaking at the conference, Nguyen Trong Nghia, Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, Chairman of the PCC’s Commission for Popularization and Education, and head of the Steering Committee for External Information Service, asked agencies and localities to further enhance their roles and responsibilities in directing and organizing the study and implementation of Conclusion No. 57-KL/TW.

He emphasised the need to raise awareness among officials, Party members, and people about the importance of the external information work and Vietnam's foreign policy and guidelines.

Agencies and localities were asked to develop action programmes and plans to effectively implement the Conclusion. It is also necessary to continue to focus on building and training a force working in the foreign information work, he said.

He emphasised the need to mobilise resources in all three aspects of human resources, material resources, and financial resources, both domestically and internationally, to effectively serve foreign information tasks, contributing to the successful implementation of national development goals until 2030 with a vision to 2045 set at the 13th National Party Congress./.