BERNAMA AND MIGHT SIGN MOU TO DISSEMINATE INFORMATION

KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian National News Agency
(Bernama) and the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology
(MIGHT) Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to disseminate
information, data and reports published by MIGHT to the public through Bernama's
Library and Infolink Service (BLIS).

Under the MoU, MIGHT will provide Bernama with contents on matters such as
biotechnology, aerospace and automative and other high technology industries and
also from MIGHT's journal TECHSCOPE, while Bernama will provide the platform and
the necessary network for the information to be accessed by the public through
Bernama's BLIS system.

BLIS is the online database of Malaysian news, statistics, industry report
and bio-data of key personalities.

The MoU was inked by Bernama's General Manager Hasnul Hassan and MIGHT's
president/chief executive Mohd Yusoff Sulaiman. The signing ceremony at Wisma
Bernama here was witnessed by Bernama's Editor-in-Chief Datuk Yong Soo Heong and
MIGHT's senior vice-president intelligence and research, Lt Col (R) Ir
Kamarulzaman Zainal, in the presence of senior officials from both sides.

"This is a very good joint venture where one party (MIGHT) produces the
contents and the other party (Bernama) will be the enabler," said Hasnul to
reporters after the signing ceremony.

Hasnul said MIGHT had a lot of information and data which could be accessed
by the public, especially students and the people, but MIGHT did not have the
necessary avenue to disseminate the information and data to all.

"Bernama, through BLIS, can disseminate these data to all those having
access to the BLIS system. What they have to do is just log on to the system and
they will have the access to MIGHT's data," he said.

Hasnul said currently the BLIS system was available to almost all public
libraries and most of the university's libraries in the country.

He described the partnership as a "win-win situation" for both parties
bacause it was based on equal profit sharing between the two organisations based
on fees to be charged for the data and information.

"I hope this is the birth of bigger things to come between Bernama and
MIGHT. I think it is a very good partnership. MIGHT has a lot of information, so
what we did today is (only the) tip on the iceberg...there will be a lot of data
on various sectors (from MIGHT) that can be download to BLIS," he said.

Hasnul also said that besides MIGHT, Bernama was also looking into other
organisations that had similar information and data, but did not have the
necessary avenue to disseminate to the public at large, to forge similar
partnerships.

Bernama, a statutory body, began operations in May 1968 and among others it
provides general and economic news services and screen-based real time financial
information services to subscribers and is a source of reliable and latest news.

MIGHT was launched as a company limited by guarantee in 1993 and is an
independent and non-profit organisation and its predominant role is to enable
consensus building and coordination for industry-government partnership in high
technology.

Speaking to reporters, Mohd Yusoff said the partnership provided a platform
for MIGHT's data and information from various sectors to be accessed through
Bernama's BLIS system by the public.

"We hope this will be a good way to disseminate information to the public at
large," he said.

Replying to a question, Mohd Yusoff said that MIGHT chose Bernama as its
partner in this venture because they had worked together in terms of promoting
smart partnership through the Langkawi International Dialogues.

Mohd Yusoff said that in today's knowledge economy, the public and students
must have access to information related to industries and government, to bring
them closer to the mainstream of the knowledge economy agenda.

"I think Bernama understands us very well...Bernama is a perfect partner for
us to actually expand MIGHT's distribution network (of information and data)
through them," he said.

"We hope this is the first step...we are looking into more MoUs (in other
areas). Today's agreement will inspire us to publish more (infomation and
data)...(because) now we gain wider audience through Bernama," he said.
-- BERNAMA