As Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, in charge of directing press work, Dr. Nguyen The Ky is probably the person who has to know and read the largest number of newspapers in Vietnam. Not only the press, he is also responsible for many important tasks in orienting ideology and culture in accordance with the Party's guidelines and viewpoints. Surprisingly, Dr. Nguyen The Ky gave financial reporters a friendly and useful exchange with deep understanding of economic and financial life as well as the value of economic and financial information for the country's development... Considering these are extremely useful opinions for journalism training, USSH would like to excerpt this interview.
Economic and financial journalism – The spearhead of the spearhead
Reporter: Sir, as Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department, playing an important role in directing press work, could you please give some assessments and comments on the position and role of economic journalism in general and financial journalism in particular today?
Dr. Nguyen The Ky: The press, journalists, are not only loyal secretaries of the times as someone said, but more than that, they are always the ones standing at the cutting edge of life. The role of the press and journalists is like that, then with economic press, financial press, in my opinion, they are always in the most important positions, the "cutting edge" of journalistic life. This is inevitable because after all, politics is just a concentrated expression of the economy. And in terms of viewpoint, for many years now, our Party has determined that economic development is the center, Party building is the key. In the current context, the economy is facing many difficulties, we see more and more how important the role of the press in general, economic press in particular, in creating information channels, proposals, and advice to overcome difficulties is.
Along with the renovation process, the press in our country has been given attention for comprehensive development, in all fields, truly being the voice and forum of all classes of people. And of course, wherever life is most vibrant, the press is also most vibrant. In my opinion, the Economic and Financial press is also the area that has developed the strongest and most dynamically in recent times. If in the early years of renovation, there were only a few newspapers and information pages in the economic field. Up to now, the number of specialized economic press agencies as well as economic information pages of non-specialized newspapers have appeared rapidly. For example: Vietnam Economic Times, Vietnam Financial Times, Banking Times, Investment Newspaper, Business Forum Newspaper, Industry and Trade Newspaper, Saigon Economic Times, Rural Economic Newspaper, Finance-Investment... along with radio and television programs specializing in economics and finance such as: VITV, Infortivi, Financial and Business News, Financial Economics, 24-hour Securities... If you follow the parliament, National Assembly sessions, Government meetings, and Central Executive Committee meetings, you will immediately see the role of economic journalism when a lot of information, guidelines, and policies have been received and processed by management leaders from the press.
Former district party secretary and advice
PV: What are your comments and assessments on information in the economic field in general and finance in particular today?
Dr. Nguyen The Ky: Financial information is the core, the lifeblood of economic information. From information about "rice bowl money", interest rates, stocks, prices, real estate ... related to people's lives, information about capital, taxes, for businesses ... to information about national resources, budget, projects, public debt ... up to now has developed quite richly, always updated every day, every hour.
However, due to many reasons, it can be said that information about the financial sector compared to its real life still has many gaps, basically still not meeting the needs of the public. Economic press in general, finance in particular, although the number of publications is quite large, the number of reporters is not small, however, it must be said frankly that we still have too few reputable economic publications, still lack of influential writers, still do not have many articles analyzing, evaluating, forecasting... causing "shock" in the investment community... There are still popular types of news articles such as "modifier" reports, "illustration" policies, copying press releases...
There are many reasons for the above situation, but basically it can be said that first of all, our training system still has many shortcomings, there is no specialized training department for reporters in the field of economics and finance. The current situation of reporters writing about economics in general, finance in particular, is still "patchwork". Most financial reporters today are trained in journalism, but their in-depth financial knowledge is still weak, or they are trained in finance but then become journalists but are weak in journalism. Both of these shortcomings make financial information superficial, lacking the necessary depth as mentioned above...
PV: It is known that you have worked in many fields, as a district party secretary, then as editor-in-chief of a press agency, and now as a leader of the press system... What advice do you have for information in the economic field in general, and financial journalism in particular, to always meet the public's needs?
Dr. Nguyen The Ky: Like many other fields, first of all, the purpose of economic and financial information needs to bring the breath of life, speak the voice of the people (including businesses). Personally, I think there is an unhappy reality that the current economic and financial press system is simply a reflection of policy. Or in other words, it is still macro, far from the lives of the people...
In my opinion, the financial press needs to play an important role in creating forums and initiating programs to contribute to building a healthy national financial system, as well as popularizing financial knowledge to every citizen, to all social classes. When I was the Secretary of the Nam Dan District Party Committee, I myself received advice from a number of experts. We have been thinking about implementing a program to equip farmers with financial knowledge. How to pilot the establishment of a "Family Spending Handbook" for each farming household, in which, in addition to the contents such as popularizing ways to borrow money to reduce poverty, borrow money for children to go to school, work abroad, borrow preferential capital from programs and projects for farmers, etc., this handbook also does two simple things: count how their family has spent and spent in a certain period of time (usually 1 month). Through these statistics, they can be aware of and calculate their financial use. And know how to adjust it to be the most reasonable, economical, and effective... The magazine can also open forums for "Young Financiers" who are students in economic universities. Or the forum can mention lessons to build a healthy national finance, we have the Law on Practicing Thrift and Combating Waste. But in general, our society is still extremely wasteful. From the story of government bonds being invested in a widespread manner as commented by many National Assembly Deputies, to the stories of rampant spending on weddings, funerals, festivals, parties... that we see everywhere. Financial press can completely open forums to educate people, to warn society about spending culture... that is the mission of Financial press. Furthermore, the Financial press can also open more columns on current affairs and politics. In particular, we are currently implementing the Campaign to Study and Follow the Moral Example of Ho Chi Minh. Through that, we can tell stories about how Uncle Ho "did finance". In 1946, the country was in a "life-threatening" situation; it had to directly face countless difficulties (ignorance, famine, etc.) while the treasury had only a few coins left. At that time, Uncle launched the movements "Resistance Rice Jar", "Warm Winter Clothes for Soldiers", "Golden Week"... mobilizing all resources to create a great August Revolution in history. Then the story of how we transported gold on the Ho Chi Minh Trail? Or meet again characters like Professor Cao Cu Boi, one of the people who participated in our Anti-Hyperinflation Campaign in the early years of the renovation period...
Up to now, social life is gradually changing. However, development resources are still a stressful issue. Therefore, educating people about saving and building a financial culture for society is very important. Avoid wasting even small things (daily meals, clothes, etc.) to big investments. In very rich countries like Germany, people are very frugal, from a piece of food onwards, or not far away, Japan - a rich and powerful country but people are still very frugal, jokingly saying that they save from... waste. It can be said that developed countries are thanks to having built a financial culture.
I think, only financial press can deeply and specifically orient the above things for the people. In addition, financial press can also open a "Profile - Event" column to review financial lessons for businesses, for the people from looking back at the world's century-old debt defaults to how the rich spend, how billionaire Bin Ghet spends money, how he teaches his children, how Nick Vujicic makes money and his concept of money... for business people to read, for society to read. From there, people can draw lessons and have reasonable spending methods, contributing to building a smart consumer society, a healthy national finance... like that, financial press can enter the nooks and crannies of life; attract and appeal to readers...
Financial Journalists Club – Why Not?
PV: So, in your opinion, what do we need to do to build an economic press information system with a team of professional journalists in the financial field?
Dr. Nguyen The Ky: In my opinion, the first thing to do is to establish a professional organization specializing in the financial field. For example, establish a "Financial Journalists Club". It is a forum for exchanging professional experiences, as well as gathering teams.
Second, it is necessary to form a team of professional reporters and editors in the fields of economics and finance, both in terms of knowledge and necessary skills in the working process.
Third, building a team of teachers and a system of specialized training programs for economic and financial reporters in journalism training centers and schools. Specifically: Faculty of Journalism and Communication (University of Social Sciences and Humanities); Faculty of Journalism (Academy of Journalism and Propaganda) ... as well as the Professional Center of the Vietnam Journalists Association. At the same time, in each locality, we also need to equip each farmer and child ... with necessary consumer knowledge. Currently, like in Yen Bai, thanks to the introduction of the Tax Program into general schools, students here understand what Tax is, the value of Tax ... and know that public works are made from Tax money. Since then, people have been more aware of preserving and protecting public works.
Thank you!