Published:  00:00 Monday - March 01, 2010

More than 500 Vietnamese newspapers, including Spring and Tet (Lunar New Year) editions, are on display in Paris, making a hit with French readers and bringing some of the spirit of the homeland’s spring to overseas Vietnamese.

The Vietnam Spring Newspaper Festival 2010, the first of its kind held abroad, opened at the Vietnamese Cultural Centre in Paris on February 27 to a crowd of about 200 local officials, Vietnamese and French readers, and representatives of Vietnamese and international news agencies.

The event marks a new advance of the Vietnamese communication sector in the international arena, said a Vietnamese official.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Do Quy Doan said the event provides the Vietnamese media with an opportunity to publicize the country’s achievements in a foreign country.

The festival also serves as an interface between Vietnamese journalists and overseas Vietnamese and French readers, he added.

The Vietnamese community in France can savour the atmosphere of Tet and other Vietnamese spring festivals through several documentaries that are being screened during the nine-day festival.

The Spring Newspaper Festival is the first in a series of cultural activities being held by the Vietnamese Embassy and the Vietnamese Cultural Centre in France this year./.