BERNAMA, Jan 24 — The Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) and Egypt-based state run news agency Middle East News Agency (Mena) are planning to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for exchange of news and information, as well as training courses.

Egypt’s Ambassador to Malaysia Ragai Tawfik Said Nasr said this during his meeting with Bernama’s Editor-in-Chief Khairdzir Md Yunus at the Malaysian National News Agency’s headquarters, Wisma Bernama, here today. Also present in the meeting was Bernama Deputy Editor-in-Chief (International News Services) Jamaluddin Muhammad.

The ambassador said that the MoU can be finalised in several months.

"I realised before coming here and up to now, a lot of Egyptian newspapers and news portals are having news about Malaysia in Arabic and in English, much more that what I’m reading in Malaysian newspapers about Egypt.

"So, we want to have a kind of MoU where we can exchange much more news and at the same time exchange visits and training courses,” he said.

Said Nasr said the collaboration between Bernama and Mena is timely as there are currently more than 10,000 Malaysians in Egypt, and that Egypt is the fourth favourite destination for Malaysian students after the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

"So, I’m sure they would like to know more about Malaysia and there are more than 1,000 Egyptian students studying here also. Egyptians are keen to come to study here and of course they want to know much more news about what’s happening in Malaysia,” he said.

The ambassador said that while there had been an agreement in news exchange between both sides many years ago, he suggested for the two agencies to sign a new agreement according to the current demands.

Meanwhile, Khairdzir pointed out that Bernama had partnered with news agencies from several countries to broaden its outreach in news coverage.

"We are looking forward to collaborating with Mena as we are planning to expand our partnership with news agencies from other countries,” he further said.

According to previous report, Bernama and Mena had inked a news exchange agreement in Cairo in April 2002. — Bernama