Vientiane Times makes huge strides in 25 years
The Vientiane Times stays true to its mission to be fast, reliable and responsible

The Vientiane Times has moved determinedly forward and upheld its mission to supply information to the public in a timely and responsible manner, using multimedia platforms to better serve its growing readership in Laos and overseas.
On April 7, the newspaper celebrates its 25th anniversary after being established on April 7, 1994 as part of the Lao Press in Foreign Languages under the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism.
The newspaper’s goal is to promote and broaden the relationship with the outside world after the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party introduced its renovation policy in 1986.

Throughout the past 25 years, the Vientiane Times has grown in quality and quantity, mirroring the nation’s rapid development. It is the country’s leading English language newspaper and plays a significant role in disseminating the policy guidelines of the Party, regulations, laws, the state’s plans, and the fine customs and traditions that are symbolic of Laos.
Looking back at its achievements over the past 25 years, the Vientiane Times has made a positive contribution to publicising the Party’s policies and the government’s socio-economic development plans as well as reporting on current affairs and providing information from overseas sources for readers at home.
The newspaper has grown continuously, starting off as a weekly newspaper and becoming a bi-weekly publication in December 1996. In 2004, it became a daily newspaper, publishing issues from Monday to Friday before adding an extra issue on Saturday.
The content has improved in all respects and the newspaper makes every attempt to ensure timely reporting, while the design is now more attractive and colourful. Meanwhile, the technology used in production is up to date and close to international standards. More staff have been employed in line with the newspaper’s growth over different stages of development. 
Thanks to guidance from the Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, acting on behalf of the government, the number of subscribers and advertisers has increased steadily while the circulation has risen from about 100 people in 1994 to several thousand today. This is largely because more and more Lao people can now understand English well.
The Vientiane Times realises that the printed newspaper can’t reach all readers throughout Laos and around the world. So it has created multimedia channels to deliver the news to readers far and wide through its website, mobile phone SMS, YouTube, and Facebook in Lao, English and French. The French version goes out through Le Renovateur. The newspaper has news networks and distribution centres across the country.  
It’s true to say that the Vientiane Times can be read wherever there is internet access and can be accessed by readers living in any country. The newspaper owes its success to the support it has received from various agencies such as UNDP and foreign embassies.
It has also received support from many domestic and foreign companies that are long-term investors in Laos, especially the Lao Brewery Company Limited which has supported the newspaper since 1994. Many other companies have assisted the newspaper while the Vientiane Times has helped them in many ways to promote Lao products on domestic and foreign markets while also providing general knowledge that is useful for readers and customers in accordance with the role played by the newspaper.
We firmly intend to continue to stride forward in line with the country’s rapid development, while acknowledging that we need cooperation and support from many parties.
In the past as at present, the Vientiane Times believes that cooperation is the key to its development and its desire to connect Laos to the region and the world.
In the past 10 years, the Vientiane Times became a member of the Asia News Network (ANN), a network of national leading daily English language newspapers in Asia, comprising an alliance of over 20 newspapers published in more than 20 countries.
In 2006, the Vientiane Times signed a contract for the exchange of news and pictures with the Xinhua News Agency.
More recently, the Vientiane Times has partnered with the Kyodo News Agency of Japan, the Global Times, the People’s Daily of China, North Korea News Agency, South Korea Biz News Agency, the Yunnan Media Group of China, and Russia’s TV-Novosti in a bid to provide information to the public in a timely manner.
In 2019, the Vientiane Times became a member of the Belt and Road News Network. In March, the newspaper signed a Memorandum of Understanding on technology development to provide information from Laos to China. Under this agreement, English language news on the Vientiane Times website will be translated into Chinese for distribution on the Weibo and WeChat apps in China.
Over the past 25 years, the Vientiane Times as well as Lao Press in Foreign Languages has been recognised as a strong Party cell and a model for inclusively competent leadership since 2000 when the Party cell began the process of inspecting its leadership. As a result, the newspaper and some staff members have been praised and rewarded for their outstanding services, and have received labour medal orders, labour medals and congratulatory certificates from the Party, government, various sectors, and international organisations.
The Vientiane Times is among several media outlets in Laos to have undergone remarkable development, leading towards modernisation and playing a key role in publicising the Party’s policies, the country’s laws and events taking place in Laos while also publishing informative articles on events outside the country for the benefit of Lao readers. All of the information published has been accepted and has won the trust of the general public.
Over the past 25 years, by fulfilling its role to provide information services to the nation at large, the Vientiane Times has been very proud to become a well-established part of society that is recognised by the general public and is now an irreplaceable part of the Lao mediascape. The overarching goal of the newspaper is to fully and wholeheartedly serve the nation as an exit and entry point for information exchange between Laos and the rest of the world.
Despite its accomplishments, the Vientiane Times continually strives to improve the quality of its services to meet the needs of the public.
Over the past 25 years that we have been serving the public, we have learnt that there is always room for improvement. Today we provide a range of news channels including our website, SMS, Facebook, YouTube, hard copies, CD Rom recordings, Le Renovateur, and a news studio. We look forward to serving our readers as best we can to meet their growing need for information. From this year on, we plan to use our news studio as another option for readers in watching and reading the news in Lao and English. 
We take this opportunity to offer our best wishes to all our readers, subscribers and valued customers and welcome feedback so that we can better serve the community in the coming years.
Once again, we wish Party and state leaders, Lao people and all readers living in Laos and other countries good health, happiness and success on the occasion of Pi Mai Lao (Lao New Year 2019).

By Editorial Desk
(Latest Update April 5, 2019)