During the 44th General Assembly activities, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by The Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) ‘s President, Mr. Mohammed bin Fahd Al-Harthi, and Director General, Engineer Abdelrahim Suleiman (on behalf of ASBU) and Mr. Juan Carlos Isaza, Director General of the Latin American Information Alliance (AIL).
This MoU will allow both parties to exchange audiovisual news materials and share live broadcast signals of urgent news events of global interest. The cooperation may also extend to other areas, including training, knowledge sharing, and the exchange of expertise.
With this new agreement, ASBU is expanding its partnerships to include Latin America, facilitating the delivery of Arab news to local audiences and providing Arab viewers with greater access to important events in the region. It is worth noting that ASBU had already working partnerships with Asia, Africa, Europe and mediterranean regions.
Following the signing of the MoU, AIL Director General Juan Carlos Isaza visited ASBU headquarters, where he met with the Director General and staff members, and toured the ASBU Media Training Academy.
The Director General provided the guest with an overview of the services ASBU offers to its member corporations, including news and programming exchange, as well as the role of The Arab News and Programs Exchange Center in Algeria.
They also discussed the platforms used for exchange, including satellite and internet-based technologies, and the integration of artificial intelligence tools. They also highlighted the crucial role of professional training, provided through ASBU's renowned Media Training Academy and the Arab Training Center in Damascus, which is launching a development and modernization project.
Mr. Isaza also learned about ASBU's joint production projects in both the Arab and European regions, as well as its cooperation with regional and international organizations on topics such as climate change. For his part, AIL's Director General noted that both organizations share common ground in terms of their membership size and the use of a single language by their members—Arabic for ASBU and Spanish for AIL. He expressed his admiration for the high level of professionalism demonstrated by ASBU, which has established it as one of the leading professional organizations on the international stage. He added that his organization is very interested in collaborating with ASBU and benefiting from its expertise and services, particularly in news exchange and professional training. He emphasized his belief that this collaboration will be mutually beneficial to both organizations' entities in the Arab world and Latin America.
