The role of the staff doing foreign information work
The staff working in foreign information work are those who represent the Party, the State and the people of Vietnam in carrying out various political and social tasks; have knowledge and ability to propagate in all fields; play an extremely important role on the diplomatic front, contributing to the success in promoting cooperation and development relations between Vietnam and its partners. The staff working in foreign information work are those who make important contributions to propagating the Party's guidelines on foreign information work; are the decisive factor in the quality and effectiveness of foreign information work.
Firstly, the team of cadres working in foreign information contributes to bringing the Party's viewpoints and policies, the State's policies and laws, and the spirit of the Party's congress resolutions to friends and people around the world . Therefore, the team of cadres working in foreign information must have a strong political stance, not waver, not be enticed by hostile forces; must cultivate themselves to "love the country, respect the people, be absolutely loyal to the Party and the Fatherland" (1) . The late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong once emphasized: "must constantly train to be steadfast in politics, always be absolutely loyal to the Party's ideals, to the interests of the nation, be alert to the influence and enticement of hostile forces, proactively prevent "self-evolution", "self-transformation", and get caught up in corruption and negativity" (2) .
Second, the team of cadres working in foreign information work makes an important contribution to strengthening people's trust in the leadership of the Party, strongly arousing and promoting patriotism, promoting the will of independence, self-reliance, national pride, creating a driving force to promote endogenous strength, combining the strength of great national unity with the strength of the times, demonstrating Vietnam's proactive and active international integration. To effectively implement this content, the team of cadres working in foreign information work must have a deep understanding of foreign information to choose appropriate content and methods of propaganda. That is a deep understanding of the political line, policies and guidelines of the Party and State, culture, national history, arts, customs and practices, thereby achieving quality in propaganda and improving the effectiveness of foreign information work.
Third, the team of cadres working in foreign information contributes to propagating to the people and international friends to understand the situation of the country, Vietnam's viewpoints and stance on international and regional issues. Directive No. 11-CT/TW, dated June 13, 1992, of the Secretariat, "On innovation and strengthening foreign information work" clearly defines the requirements and tasks of the team working in information work, which is to communicate information about the development situation of Vietnam to the world. The forms of propaganda must be diverse, authentic, vivid, timely, have positive impacts, and be convincing; foreign information must contribute to protecting the Party's ideological foundation, fighting against erroneous and hostile viewpoints in the context of many complicated international developments. The staff working in foreign information must be well-versed in foreign languages because foreign information will require frequent contact and processing of information in many different languages. In addition to basic foreign language vocabulary knowledge, new terms and vocabulary must also be continuously supplemented so as not to fall behind the language of the information recipients - foreign readers, audiences and listeners.
On June 15, 2023, the Politburo issued Conclusion No. 57-KL/TW on continuing to improve the quality and effectiveness of foreign information work in the new situation, emphasizing: “Strengthening propaganda and promotion of Vietnam as a peaceful, friendly, cooperative, developing country, a friend, a reliable partner, an active and responsible member in the international community, contributing to enhancing the position and prestige of the country and the Communist Party of Vietnam in the international arena; arousing patriotism, consolidating the strength of great national unity and the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country; enhancing people's trust in the Party, the State and the socialist regime; effectively implementing the foreign policy of the Party and the State; gaining the sympathy and support of the international community, creating favorable conditions for the cause of innovation, building and defending the Fatherland, successfully implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the country's development goals until 2045”. Therefore, continuing to improve the quality and effectively build a team of cadres working in foreign information will contribute to the implementation of the tasks set out in Resolution 59-NQ/TW, dated January 24, 2025, of the Politburo, on "International integration in the new situation" and also contribute to the successful implementation of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and focus resources towards the successful implementation of the 14th National Party Congress.
Current status of staff working in foreign information
In recent years, the staff working in foreign information work has had many positive changes. Conclusion No. 16-KL/TW, of the 11th Politburo, dated February 14, 2012, on the "Foreign information development strategy for the period 2011 - 2020" emphasized : "Foreign information work is a very important part of the Party's propaganda and ideological work; under the leadership of the Party, the management of the State; is a regular, long-term task of the entire political system". In the process of innovation, our Party issued many documents to direct this work, such as Directive No. 11-CT/TW, dated June 13, 1992, of the Secretariat, "On innovation and strengthening of foreign information work"; Decision No. 16-QD/TW, dated December 27, 2001, of the Secretariat of the 9th Party Central Committee, “On the establishment of the Steering Committee for foreign information work”; Directive No. 26/CT-TW, dated September 10, 2008, of the Secretariat of the 10th Party Central Committee, “ On continuing to innovate and strengthen foreign information work in the new situation”; Conclusion No. 57-KL/TW, dated June 15, 2023, of the Politburo, “On continuing to improve the quality and effectiveness of foreign information work in the new situation”. Decision No. 1960/QD-TTg, dated December 1, 2020, of the Prime Minister approving the project on Training knowledge and skills for civil servants and public employees working in international integration for the period 2021 - 2025, contributing to further improving the expertise and professionalism of the team of domestic and foreign diplomatic staff.
Thus, our Party has always proactively and promptly issued resolutions, directives and conclusions to enhance the role of foreign information work in each period and bring about practical results.
Firstly , the staff working in foreign information is growing in both quantity and professional qualifications, meeting the increasingly high requirements and tasks in the current period. As of June 2023, Vietnam has 253 press agencies participating in foreign information activities, 59 Vietnamese press offices residing abroad, 137 Vietnamese reporters residing abroad in 2022 (3), the number of staff working in foreign information at the Department of Information and Communications, and the Department of Culture, Information and Communications of communes is 591 people.
Second, the team of cadres working in foreign information work is constantly trained through many different environments, demonstrating steadfast political will, absolute loyalty to the Party, the Fatherland and the people; actively and proactively participating in advising and giving opinions to the Party and the State on many important contents in foreign policy, contributing to promoting cooperative relations with international friends. To date, Vietnam has established diplomatic relations with 194 countries in the world; established a stable and long-term relationship framework with 34 strategic and comprehensive partners, including 13 comprehensive strategic partners (as of May 16, 2025). This result has affirmed the important role of the team of foreign information cadres in raising Vietnam's position in the international arena.
Third , the training and development of cadres working in foreign information is increasingly being paid attention to and expanded. Many cadres are sent to study and research abroad, accessing advanced models and practical experiences of other countries, thereby improving their professional skills and ability to adapt to globalization trends.
Fourth , the foreign information staff has been proactive and creative in utilizing digital media platforms to disseminate foreign information more effectively. The application of digital technology, social media and modern media helps to increase influence and reach a diverse audience, especially the international community.
However, in addition to the achieved results, the staff working in foreign information work still has some limitations that need to be overcome: 1- Many leaders and managers do not have enough knowledge and skills in information and propaganda work in general, and foreign information work in particular. This affects the quality of direction, orientation and implementation of foreign affairs activities; 2- Funding for training and fostering staff working in foreign information work is still difficult. Therefore, the training efficiency is not high, not meeting the practical requirements of foreign information work; 3- Foreign language proficiency and communication skills of a number of staff working in foreign information work are not uniform. Some have not kept up with the rapid development of international communication, especially in the use of digital communication technology; 4- The coordination between agencies and units in foreign information work is not really close, leading to a lack of consistency in information, reducing the effectiveness of international communication campaigns; 5- Some officials are not really proactive in updating and researching deeply about the world situation and new trends in international relations, making the work of advising and proposing solutions still passive and lacking sensitivity to the practical situation.
The main reason for the above limitations is that a number of cadres have not fully and deeply understood the position, role and importance of foreign information work in the context of the country's deep international integration in all fields as at present. In addition, the rapid change of the world situation requires the cadres working in foreign information work to constantly improve their capacity, adapt flexibly and be more proactive in their work in the coming time.
Some solutions to build a team of staff doing foreign information work to meet current task requirements
Thoroughly grasp the Party's viewpoint in Conclusion No. 57-KL/TW, dated June 15, 2023, of the Politburo, "On continuing to improve the quality and effectiveness of foreign information work in the new situation", one of the key solutions to continue to improve the quality and effectiveness of foreign information work is: “Build a team of specialized cadres working in foreign information with strong political will, sufficient qualities, capacity and qualifications in a professional and modern direction. Improve the quality of training and fostering of foreign information majors at training institutions. Expand international cooperation in training and fostering cadres in fields related to foreign information”. To effectively carry out this task, it is necessary to synchronously deploy the following specific solutions:
First, thoroughly grasp the Party's viewpoints, policies and guidelines and the State's foreign policy.
This is a fundamental solution, of primary significance, contributing to improving the quality of the staff working in foreign information. Each staff working in foreign information needs to have a firm grasp of the Party's viewpoints, policies, and foreign policies, the State's foreign policies, as well as relevant international legal documents. In particular, for staff directly involved in foreign communication work, such as reporters and editors at press agencies, this requirement becomes even more important. Because these are the people who directly convey information to the international public, foreign governments, foreigners in Vietnam and overseas Vietnamese. They must be politically steadfast, have a deep understanding of foreign policy and international legal regulations, and be able to handle complex and sensitive situations. It is necessary to regularly organize training courses on foreign policy, update new trends in the world to ensure sufficient capacity to participate effectively in the foreign information front. General Secretary and President To Lam, at a working session with the Party Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on implementing the foreign policy of the 13th National Party Congress and developing the diplomatic sector, emphasized: “In the coming time, foreign affairs work needs to be proactive and timely in detecting opportunities and challenges, contributing to the successful implementation of the 100-year strategic goals under the leadership of the Party, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the country; raising the level and expanding Vietnam's contributions to peace, cooperation, development and progress of humanity, strongly spreading the "version of Vietnam as an independent, self-reliant, peaceful, cooperative, friendly, developed, prosperous and happy country"; building a team of diplomatic staff that is both red and professional" (4) .
Second, practice strong political will and improve the ability to refute false arguments of hostile and reactionary forces.
The staff working in foreign information must have a strong political will to fight against false and distorted arguments from hostile and reactionary forces. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen political and ideological education, helping staff grasp the Party's viewpoints and foreign policies, understand Vietnam's foreign strategies and policies, and have the right approach in all situations. Foster skills in handling international media crises, helping staff to analyze, identify and refute false information convincingly and scientifically. In addition, it is necessary to promote the movement of self-study, self-training in revolutionary ethics, and encourage staff to innovate their thinking and be creative in the process of working to improve the effectiveness of foreign propaganda. In the current period, one of the important standards of staff working in foreign affairs must be: "Courage, innovation, creativity, integration". This requires the staff working in foreign information to constantly train and improve their professional capacity, expertise, foreign language skills, as well as strong political will and mettle to be able to respond flexibly to complex developments in international relations.
Third , build a standard framework and improve the professionalism of the staff working in foreign information .
To build a professional and modern team of foreign information officers, it is necessary to develop a framework of standards on capacity, qualities, and professional qualifications, focusing on professional qualifications, foreign language skills and skills in the process of performing tasks, such as research skills, strategic planning, and foreign information planning; state management skills and management of foreign information activities; skills in organizing, implementing plans, services and foreign information products; skills in analyzing, evaluating and appraising foreign information programs, activities, services and products; skills in using digital technology and artificial intelligence in foreign communication work; ability to communicate, negotiate and build relationships; ability to write, speak, present, organize events, press conferences, rallies, etc. to support foreign information activities; have skills in organizing, coordinating work, and working in groups; Creative, quick, persistent in implementing the external communication goals assigned by the organization and leadership; ability to work independently, politically sensitive and handle situations promptly. Building this standard framework will help create a team of professional external information officers, capable of meeting the requirements of tasks in the new situation.
Fourth, ensure conditions and improve treatment for staff working in foreign information work.
Foreign information work cannot be highly effective without proper investment in financial resources, facilities and remuneration for staff. To do this, it is necessary to increase budget investment in training and development of staff, ensuring that staff have the opportunity to access specialized training programs, study abroad, and improve their qualifications in all aspects. In addition, it is necessary to have support in modern working conditions, such as fully equipping tools and technologies for international communication, including communication data analysis systems, artificial intelligence, digital communication platforms, proposing timely reward regimes to motivate and disseminate typical examples of excellent completion of assigned tasks; supporting resources for staff to participate in international training and research programs, creating conditions for staff to have opportunities to develop and contribute more effectively to foreign affairs work./.
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(1) Regulation No. 144-QD/TW, dated May 9, 2024, of the Politburo, on revolutionary ethical standards of cadres and party members in the new period
(2) Nguyen Phu Trong, Building and developing a comprehensive and modern foreign policy and diplomacy imbued with the identity of "Vietnamese bamboo" , National Political Publishing House Truth, Hanoi, 2023, p. 173
(3) Trinh Thi Tuyet Mai: “Refuting distorted arguments about freedom of speech, freedom of the press, academia and cultural events in Vietnam”, Electronic Journal of Political Theory , March 28, 2024, https://lyluanchinhtri.vn/phan-bac-nhung-luan-dieu-xuyen-tac-ve-quyen-tu-do-ngon-luan-tu-do-bao-chi-hoc-thuat-va-su-kien-van-hoa-o-viet-nam-5507.html
(4) General Secretary and President To Lam works with the Party Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government Electronic Newspaper , August 29, 2024, https://baochinhphu.vn/tong-bi-thu-chu-tich-nuoc-to-lam-lam-viec-voi-ban-can-su-dang-bo-ngoai-giao-102240829172200313.htm
Source: https://tapchicongsan.org.vn/web/guest/quoc-phong-an-ninh-oi-ngoai1/-/2018/1126102/xay-dung-doi-ngu-can-bo-lam-cong-tac-thong-tin-doi-ngoai-dap-ung-yeu-cau-cua-tinh-hinh-moi.aspx
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