DUBAI, UAE – Aimed at strengthening professional ties and cooperation in the field of news exchange, the Philippine News Agency (PNA) and Emirates News Agency (WAM) on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) here.
Signed by Virginia Arcilla-Agtay, Director of the News and Information – mother unit of PNA – and Mohamed Jalal Al Rayssi, Executive Editor of WAM, on the sidelines of the 2019 World Government Summit, the MOU is the first for PNA with an Arab country news agency.
“PNA and WAM shall endeavor to exchange visits of each personnel as well as each experience in journalism, video editing & production, social media, publishing, translation,” the MOU read.
Al Rayssi said there are a lot of things to look forward to after the signing, aside from news exchange.
“There are building relations between visiting staff. Our staff, they come and go, they can have experience of the work from here and there,” Al Rayssi said. “We can start working on some initiatives together for the benefits of our audience and our staffs who are working both sides.”
The Philippines, he said, is considered by the United Arab Emirates as an important country considering the more than half a million Filipinos working in the region.
He added that it would be interesting to share stories and promote culture among its people.
“PNA and WAM can start working together and collaborating. This is a must and it is also important for us to look at the world from UAE that we are very connected with each other in different parts f the world,” he said.
Meanwhile, Arcilla-Agtay said the MOU with WAM came just in time when PNA is in the process of revitalization by expanding its reach not only in the Philippines but also to other countries.
“Given that there are more than 679,000 Filipinos living and working in the UAE, this MOU with WAM will further bolster our intent of reaching out to many overseas Filipinos and spreading the news about government programs and on-goings back home,” she said. “In the same way, it would be helpful to promote Philippine culture to the people of the UAE, that has been a second home to fellow Filipinos.”
The news exchange with WAM, she said, is just one of the similar agreements signed by PNA with foreign news counterparts.
Last year, PNA signed a news cooperation deal with Hungarian News Agency.
As PNA looks forward to a fruitful news collaboration with WAM, she added that more news agreements are in the pipeline, which are expected to be signed within the year.
Aside from PNA, WAM also signed news cooperation agreements with seven other foreign news agencies such as Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama), Prensa Latina of Cuba, Slovenian Press Agency, and Bulgarian News Agency, among others.
