India and Afghanistan signed a MoU to improve cooperation in Information & Broadcasting sectors

India and Afghanistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) as a major initiative to boost cooperation for capacity building in critical sectors of Information & Broadcasting. The MoU was signed between Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Smt. Ambika Soni and Dr. Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, Minister of Information & Culture, Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

Speaking on the occasion, Smt. Soni said this initiative would provide a platform for development of media policies and strategies between the two countries. Dr. Sayed Makhdoom Raheen, Minister of Information & Culture, Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in his remarks stated that the MoU would enable the Government in Afghanistan to draw a roadmap for media policies and strategies in the future.

The MoU signed between the two countries covers a wide range of issues. Prominent being policy and strategy development, project management, financial management and procurement processes. The focus of the MoU is on capacity development covering critical areas which are as follows:

• Development of media policies and strategies.
• Development of independent and free press in Afghanistan.
• Identification of areas of reforms and restructuring in the field of press and media and implementation thereof.
• Development and standardization of media related programmes, graphic designing, production of documentaries and films and other related areas.
• Production and broadcasting activities of Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA) including content management.
• Marketing of TV and Radio programmes for revenue generation.

Another key aspect of the MoU relates to the provision of Advisory services for supporting policy and strategy development and system improvement in Afghanistan. This would entail training of Afghan Civil Servants at relevant institutes in India and exposure visits. It would also entail on-job practical training and assisting and establishing training institutes in Afghanistan. As part of the MoU it is also envisaged to exchange publications and research material for capacity development in technical areas.

The MoU has been signed in the backdrop of a range of activities conducted in Afghanistan in critical areas of Information & Broadcasting by the Ministry. These include: Training by Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) to various Afghan Journalists. Annually IIMC is training several Afghan journalists sent by the Indian Embassy Kabul. India in the recent past has helped build the full fledged Radio And Television Afghanistan (RTA) Stations at Jalalabad Afghanistan. As part of the capacity building technical process, India is also providing satellite uplinking facilities for the state owned television RTA. BECIL representatives in Afghanistan have earlier helped on various projects to RTA. A process has also been initiated to facilitate the flow of films from India into Afghanistan.