MALAYSIA AND VIETNAM AGREE TO STRENGTHEN INFORMATION COOPERATION

From Yong Soo Heong
NANNING (Guangxi, China) -- Malaysia and Vietnam Thursday agreed on ways to strengthen cooperation in the media and information fields.

This followed a bilateral meeting between Information Minister Ahmad
Shabery Cheek and Vietnam's Minister of Information and Communication, Le Doan
Hop, on the sidelines of the Asean-China Ministers Responsible for Information
Conference here.

Ahmad Shabery told his counterpart that Malaysia hoped to get more
information and visuals from Vietnam to have a better idea of its Asean
neighbour.

There was a lot that Malaysians could learn from Vietnam's long history of
civilisation and culture, he said.

Ahmad Shabery also said that Asean countries needed to strengthen their
capabilities in information gathering and dissemination so that they need not
have to depend entirely on the Western media.


"We need to stick together so that we can inform our people effectively,"
he
said.

Le said Asean media groups needed to provide accurate and timely
information to promote sustained development in the region.

In this regard, he proposed that Vietnam and Malaysia step up cooperation
in
the information sector through the sharing of experiences through training and
exchange of information and media personnel.

Le said these capacity-building measures would go a long way to ensure
better cooperation and understanding between the two countries.

-- BERNAMA