Hanoi (VNA) -💙 The State Records and Archives Department, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, on August 31 hosted a ceremony to celebrate its 60th founding anniversary (September 4, 1962 - 2022).

Addressing the event, Director of the State Records and Archives Department Dang Thanh Tung reviewed the agency's 60-year development, saying that the unit has promoted the values of archived documents and provided information related to archives in different forms. The department has published and introduced archival materials on mass media, portals and websites; compiled and published more than 100 books; produced 20 documentaries broadcasted on national and local television channels; and organised hundreds of domestic and international exhibitions. He stressed that national archives are the heritage bearing the nation's soul. Over the past 60 years, archival documents have served the socio-economic development, the research of the Party and State's policies related to politics, diplomacy and national defence; and provided legal evidence to prove Vietnam's sovereignty, Tung said. Only when people can access the values of archived documents most simply and conveniently do the archival materials uphold their value, Tung noted. He affirmed that the archival sector had made great efforts to serve better the requirement of exploitation and use of agencies and people. Publications and documentaries are built with diverse contents and published in newspapers, magazines and mass media, serving important, timely events of the country and localities, as well as the dissemination of the country's sea and island sovereignty. The scientific research work has been carried out seriously, with many scientific programmes at the state, ministerial and grassroots levels and domestic and international conferences. Standardisation activities in clerical and archival work and the application of information technology have been increasingly concentrated, producing positive results. The State Records and Archives Department has been flexible and creative in performing the task of preserving and promoting the value of archival documents to meet the people's demands. The sector is rushing to transit from traditional storage to digital storage, from document archiving to data archiving, said Tung. To prepare for this transition, the department advises leaders of the Ministry of Home Affairs to work on amendments to the Law on Archives, which includes contents related to electronic archives management to meet digital transformation and e-Government development requirements. It also concentrates on building the e-archives project in the State of Vietnam. Speaking at the event, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra asked the State Records and Archives Department to promote innovation, take the lead in clerical and archival work, and promote the value of archival documents to serve the public and society effectively. She pointed out important tasks for the sector to focus on, including consultations on building and perfecting institutions and policies on archives; personnel training; developing technical infrastructure to meet digital transformation requirements; promoting digital transformation and safe management of national archives; and conducting scientific research activities and further expanding international cooperation. The national archives centres under the State Records and Archives Department are preserving about 1,000 fonts/document collections written in the languages of Chinese, Nom, French, and Vietnamese, among others, on paper materials and woodblocks, movies, and recordings. From 2012 to 2019, the centres have served nearly 26,000 domestic and foreign readers, issued copies and authentications of 702,000 pages of archival documents, and welcomed more than 234,000 visitors to the archives exhibition area./.