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Deputy Head of the Party Central Committee's Commission for Information and Education Pham Van Linh addressing the ceremony 
This is the third time that the National Awards on External Information has been held, honoring authors with outstanding press works and books on external information. The awards have helped encourage authors, press workers, press agencies, and publishers to more actively participate in the external information service and strengthen connections among relevant agencies, contributing to improving the effectiveness of external information dissemination and promoting Vietnam's relationship with other countries.

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President Tran Dai Quang (3rd from right) and Head of the Party Central Committee's Commission for Information and Education Vo Van Thuong (3rd from left) presenting first prizes 
This year, the organizing panel received 893 works, an increase of 21% compared to 2015. The organizers also added the two categories of book and landscape picture to the 2016 awards. Among the entries,  349 are print newspaper articles; 204 - electronic works; 61 - of audio; 112 - of television; 106 - photographic pieces; and 61 - books. The works are produced in 17 languages, namely Vietnamese, English, French, German, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Lao, Indonesian, Korean, and Persian (six languages more at the 2016 awards than the 2015 wards).

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Lieutenant General Nguyen Trong Nghia, Deputy Chief of the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army and Minister of Information and Communications presenting third prizes
The honored works covered almost all aspects such as historical, political, economic, social and cultural life of Vietnam, activities of the overseas Vietnamese communities, policies of the Party, laws of the State, positions of Vietnam concerning international and regional issues as well as the fight against the “peaceful evolution” strategy of the hostile forces…

At the ceremony, the organizing panel presented six first, 15 second, 18 third and 30 consolation prizes to authors and groups of authors of works from different genres. The success of the awards has proved the important role of the external information service in the current context.

Reported by Thu Hung - Huu Duong