By Nabilah Salleh
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 (NNN-Bernama) — News exchange between Malaysia and Cuba will help further ignite and strengthen people-to-people contact, and create a better understanding on the two countries, said Cuba’s Ambassador to Malaysia Florentino Batista Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said hence the revival of the news exchange cooperation between Cuba’s Latin American News Agency (Prensa Latina) and the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) is vital and timely.
“The collaboration in news exchange will help to link the peoples of both sides. I’m pretty sure that most Malaysians do not know that Cuba has one of the most influential jazz festivals in the entire Western hemisphere. We’re a strong house for jazz that many Malaysian jazz lovers do not know.
“Vice versa, many Cubans might not know how successful Malaysia is doing in the badminton arena and squash (as you have a World title holder). Therefore, more news exchange should be visible to both sides in order to build commonalities, relations and understanding between our peoples.
“For that, news agencies have a major role to play. Cubans need a content provider that they can trust,” said Gonzalez to Bernama after he paid a courtesy call to Bernama’s Chairman Senator Ras Adiba Radzi at its headquarters here, Wednesday.
Bernama and Prensa Latina signed a news exchange agreement in 2005, and subsequently several agreements were also signed concerning bilateral trade, information and communication technology between both countries.
Gonzalez further highlighted that as Bernama is a reliable source due to its expertise and background, in the bigger picture, the news exchange between the two agencies would further help to link people in the regional context.
“ASEAN with its diversity in terms of people, size and area, I believe we can tap into the resources and bring more benefits to both sides,” he added noting the revived agreement would bring people from the Southeast Asia region and Cuba closer through a more extensive flow of news and information about one another.
Cuba and Malaysia established diplomatic ties on Feb 6, 1975, and since then have moved forward to enjoy meaningful relations and cooperation in many areas – politics, economics, medical, education, biotechnology, sports and people-to-people ties.
There have been numerous exchanges of delegations, even at the highest level and important agreements of economic and technical cooperation.
The Caribbean island nation opened its embassy in Kuala Lumpur in 1997, and Malaysia followed suit by setting up its embassy in Havana in February 2001.
— NNN-BERNAMA
