By Agencies

KUALA LUMPUR: Zimbabwe is looking to forge media cooperation with Malaysia through a proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU), with talks at an advanced stage.

Permanent Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Nick Mangwana, said most of the proposed MoU’s provisions had already been agreed upon, paving the way for collaboration in digital transformation, broadcasting, news operations and professional exchanges during an official visit to Media Prima Berhad’s News and Current Affairs division.

“Part of this journey is to build a collaborative relationship in the media sector between Malaysia and Zimbabwe and we are working on an MoU.

“Most of the clauses have already been agreed on how we can cooperate in the media space,” he told reporters after the dialogue session today.

Accompanied by representatives from Zimbabwe’s Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Ministry, Mangwana said the visit to Media Prima was part of the delegation’s official programme in Malaysia to strengthen bilateral ties and explore collaboration between the two countries’ media sectors.

The dialogue session focused on sharing best practices in digital transformation, broadcasting, newsroom operations, media innovation and capacity building, while exploring strategic partnerships and professional exchanges between Malaysian and Zimbabwean media organisations.

He said stronger media cooperation would complement existing diplomatic relations by fostering greater people-to-people understanding.

“Even though we cooperate very well at a diplomatic level, if nobody is talking about it then our populations don’t get to know about it.

“So now we just need our media to cooperate so that Malaysia doesn’t become a strange country to Zimbabweans and, of course, Zimbabwe won’t be a strange country to Malaysians,” he said.

Mangwana said about 5,000 Malaysians visited Zimbabwe each year and expressed hope the figure would grow, highlighting attractions such as Victoria Falls and the country’s renowned safari industry.

He also pointed to the long-standing education ties between the two countries, saying Zimbabwe had sent about 500 students to Malaysia annually for the past 17 years.

Following the dialogue session, the delegation was briefed by New Straits Times’ group editor Farrah Naz Karim on NSTP’s KLIK initiative, a digital archive facility containing more than 15 million documents, photographs and news articles dating back to its founding year of 1845.

Describing the visit as “a journey of discovery”, Mangwana praised Media Prima for adapting to the rapidly evolving media landscape.

“They’ve been very nimble and creative in keeping legacy media relevant while embracing new technologies to ensure they are where the audience is.

“It was quite a journey of discovery for us. We have a lot of takeaways to take home and incorporate into our practices,” he said.