Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesian state-owned news agency ANTARA and Italian news agency ANSA signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on news exchange cooperation on Friday.
The MoU was inked by ANTARA's News Director Akhmad Munir and the CEO of ANSA Stefano De Alessandri, virtually, from their respective offices.
Munir said that the cooperation is important in terms of how ANTARA will explore the potential of Indonesian news reporting to Italia (Italy) specifically and Europe generally.
Through the cooperation, ANTARA will try and search for more information from Italy on bilateral relations with Indonesia.
In addition to strengthening information exchange, he said he believes that the cooperation could also strengthen the relations between the two countries.
Meanwhile, Alessandri expressed his enthusiasm over partnering with Indonesia, which has the fourth biggest population in the world.
The cooperation will allow ANSA to improve the scope of its coverage in Indonesia and vice versa. The partnership will offer more news on Italy in Indonesia, he informed.
He said he expects the ANSA-ANTARA cooperation to strengthen relations between the two countries as well as expand the potential for other forms of cooperation.
As per the agreement, ANSA may develop a special commercial project for the company and institutions that seek to communicate from Indonesia to Italy, he informed.
Meanwhile, Italian companies can serve as institutions to communicate with Indonesia, he added.
The cooperation with ANSA is the first established by ANTARA with a news agency in Europe.
ANTARA has a wide distribution network with 32 bureau offices and 2 overseas bureaus, namely the Beijing Bureau and Kuala Lumpur Bureau, as well as a correspondent based in Japan.
Meanwhile, in countries where it does not have a bureau or correspondent, ANTARA has strengthened cooperation with local news agencies, such as the Namibian news agency NAMPA and Kenyan news agency KBC.