More News On Malaysia In South Korea Through Bernama, Yonhap Exchanges

From Mohamad Nasir Yusoff SEOUL, Nov 17 (Bernama) -- South Koreans will be reading more about Malaysia soon with the signing of a cooperation agreement on news exchanges between Malaysian national news agency Bernama and its South Korean counterpart Yonhap here Monday. The exchanges, which include news texts, photographs and visuals, will pave the way for better people-to-people understanding and strengthen the long established good bilateral relations between the two countries. Bernama General Manager Zulkefli Salleh signed the agreement on behalf of the news agency while Yonhap was represented by its President and Chief Executive Officer Park No-hwang. The signing ceremony was held at the 39th executive board meeting of the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), hosted by Yonhap and witnessed by delegates from 22 member countries. Zulkefli said Yonhap would pick up from some 300 news items and 150 photographs produced by Bernama daily for distribution to local South Korean press, apart from using them on its news website. "This augurs well for Malaysia especially in attracting more investments from South Korea and enhancing trade relations, as well as promoting tourism in Malaysia among some 50 million South Koreans," he said after the signing of the agreement. He said Bernama too would cater to Yonhap's requests for exclusive news and interviews and television visuals of particular interest to South Koreans. Yonhap too would do likewise for Bernama, said Zulkefli, adding that this agreement could also be a stepping stone for BernamaTV, which was currently undergoing a transformation process, to go international as a content provider for Malaysia. "We have had initial discussions on this and Yonhap has shown a keen interest on getting documentaries and certain TV programmes from Bernama," he said. Also present at the two-day OANA executive board meeting was Bernama Editor-in-Chief Zakaria Abdul Wahab, who presented Malaysia's country paper on challenges and opportunities for national news agencies amidst the advent of new media. Bernama Features and Special Issues Editor Mohamad Nasir Yusoff also attended the meeting. -- BERNAMA