Hanoi Press Center Puts Best Foot Forward To Welcome Reporters Covering US-DPRK Summit

Hanoi Press Center Puts Best Foot Forward to Welcome Reporters Covering US-DPRK Summit

The International Media Center (IMC) in Hanoi opened on Tuesday, but has already become a second home to some 3,000 foreign journalists, who have flocked to the Vietnamese capital to cover the US-North Korea summit

HANOI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th February, 2019) The International Media Center (IMC) in Hanoi opened on Tuesday, but has already become a second home to some 3,000 foreign journalists, who have flocked to the Vietnamese capital to cover the US-North Korea summit.

Although the city started preparations on a rather short notice, just two weeks prior to the summit, the local authorities have put much effort to give a warm welcome to journalists coming from different parts of the world. Apart from basic work-related necessities, such as free Wi-Fi, desks, chairs and sufficient amount of electric plugs to charge equipment, the center also offered some entertainment such as free bus tours around the city.

Reporters' basic needs - such as food - were not ignored as well. On the first day of the summit, the press center provided journalists with complimentary breakfasts, free lunches and dinners.

The variety and quality of food seems to excite most journalists - especially a Pho Bo stand that draws long lines most of the time. Nevertheless, some American reporters, in particular those from the New York Times, apparently felt disturbed about "typically communist" canteen coupons handed out before lunches and dinners, as they described in its article.

However, the all-you-can-eat smorgasbord, which offers oysters among other dishes, can hardly be compared to a "communist" canteen, and nobody actually checks how many times you receive a meal ticket - according to other foreign and local journalists, who decided to go for seconds and shared their experience with a Sputnik correspondent.

Free food and drinks at the site are not limited to the IMC's canteen. For example, the Paris Baguette chain offers free sandwiches and drinks, while women wearing traditional gowns walk among desks and offer sugar-free fruit drinks to reporters.

Yet another great opportunity to cut one's costs is a free taxi service provided to media by the ABC Taxi, with the company's executive officers assisting in booking right next to the building's gate.

Several local companies have decided not to miss the chance and set up their stands at the premises of the IMC, handing out booklets about their products or even selling some right on the spot - from SIM cards to coffee. The Vietjet Air carrier, which has signed major deals on the sidelines of a meeting between the US and Vietnamese presidents on Wednesday, hands out a Vietjet bag, baseball cap and 10,000 mAh power bank.