Social networks are a good way for the government to present its policies to the wider public and receive feedback in order to improve democratic policy-making, Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Bac Son, said.

Government provides information on Facebook

Minister of Information and Communications, Nguyen Bac Son

In an interview with Dan Tri about the government's decision to open a Facebook page, Son said that this was good news which shows that the government has realised the advantages Facebook as a modern means of communication.

"I think it will bring more democratic input into policy-making and improve the quality of government," Son confirmed.

The minister revealed that while there was a vast array of government, state and agency websites, they were barely visited as they offered little in the way of interaction.

"We’ve seen the difference when the information was published on the government Facebook account," he said. "We've got lots of likes and comments."

Regarding criticism, Son said that this was a natural part of social networks where people can freely say or share their thoughts, and there's wasn’t any need to be concerned.

"We should carry on our work and try to raise people's awareness so that they are not misled by negative comments or fake accounts created by people with bad intentions," Son said.

The Vietnamese government’s official Facebook account was introduced on October 21 had about 35,000 likes as of October 22.

Dtinews