Channel NewsAsia to set up office in Vietnam

Leading regional broadcaster Channel NewsAsia has announced plans to set up a bureau in Vietnam to strengthen its ability to cover the region's developments more comprehensively, local media reported Wednesday. Debra Soon, managing director of Channel NewsAsia, said they had started the process of getting approval from the Vietnamese government and hoped that the bureau could open this year, state- run radio Voice of Vietnam (VOV) reported on its website. NewsAsia has covered Southeast Asia for the past 15 years, and if the above-mentioned plan is approved, it will be the channel's 14th bureau in Asia, following the opening of one in Yangon of Myanmar in January this year. The plan would help NewsAsia better cover the Indochina region where over 220 million people live in Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, said the channel's official. In another development, the channel has organized the Vietnam Business Insights forum, with the title "Redefining Sustainable Business Growth for Vietnam," in which many Vietnamese and foreign experts, speakers and corporate leaders have taken part, according to VOV. Channel NewsAsia Singapore was established in 1999 by MediaCorp.