Tareq al-Shami, Yemen Saba news agency Chairman and Director met on Wednesday in the capital, Sana'a with China Ambassador Chang Hua to discuss future collaboration in all media fields.
Both officials discussed a rapprochement between Yemen and China in the media sector to not only boost the sector but enhance both organization's media reach.
Al-Shami was keen to highlight the valuable contribution China could bring Yemen in the media sector, through technology, expertise and training.
Xinhua, which is China official state news agency largely invested in its development throughout the years, always keeping up with new technology. In 1997, Xinhua made the transition from a hard copy news provider to an online media cooperation through Xinhuanet. In 2000, it began around-the-clock news release with leading online public opinion at home and setting a good image of China abroad as its main task.
Starting from 2010, Xinhuanet began transforming itself from a governmental cultural institution to an enterprise, operating in the entity of the Xinhua Network Corporation Limited. In May 2011, the Xinhuanet Corporation LTD. was officially established.
Xinhuanet releases news items 24 hours daily in eight languages, namely, Chinese (simplified and traditional), English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Japanese and Tibetan, by using multimedia communication means, such as texts, photos, graphics, audio messages, video, blogs, podcast, micro-blog, short messages, and cell phone news. As a result, it can reach directly and instantly its audiences at home and abroad at crucial moments of major news coverage and breaking events.
Saba which reach has something to be desired as an international media source is looking to benefit from Xinhua success and emulate its transition from a national news source into an international media heavy weight.