Tunis, Jan. 15 (TAP) - The 44th General Assembly of the Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU) got underway on Wednesday at the Mediterranean Medina in the seaside resort of Yasmine Hammamet.

The event, held on January 15 and 16, also includes two seminars on Thursday.

The 44th ASBU Conference got underway in the presence of Sofiane Tekaya, Tunisia's Minister of Tourism, Abdul Rahim Suleiman and Mohammed bin Fahd Al-Harthi, Director General and Chairman of the ASBU, respectively, as well as a number of senior officials from regional and international radio and television partner organisations.

In his speech at the opening of the event, the Minister of Tourism affirmed Tunisia's willingness to support joint Arab action in the economic field, and tourism in particular, with a view to achieving Arab economic integration.

In particular, he expressed Tunisia's pride in hosting the ASBU headquarters, praising the Union's role and its strategic focus on strengthening its investment resources through the Royal ASBU hotel and the mega project currently under way, the “ASBU Link Centre.”

For his part, Abdul Rahim Suleiman stressed the importance of this meeting in strengthening inter-Arab cooperation in the media sector, as well as examining the achievements of 2024 and the cooperation projects planned for 2025 in the service of the Arab media.

In a statement to TAP's correspondent in Nabeul, he emphasised the significant development in the volume of information and programme exchanges in the Arab media during 2024, thanks to the use of modern technologies, in particular “ASBU Cloud.”

ASBU Cloud consists of highly secure servers on global cloud networks and high-speed Internet connections, offering numerous applications and services that can be used in the audiovisual and IT fields, including, above all, exchanges of content in the form of live broadcasts or files containing editorial information.

“Today, ASBU represents a platform and a space for the exchange of information and programmes within and outside the Arab region. ASBU's influence should be strengthened with the signing of a new partnership agreement with the Union representing Latin media,” announced its Director General.

For the year 2025, the ASBU intends to further develop training programmes within its Academy launched in its Tunis headquarters in 2017 that will benefit a larger number of beneficiaries among audiovisual professionals in the Arab region.

The Union will continue its strategy of strengthening the role of cloud and satellite technology in the exchange of information and programmes between Arab countries and the rest of the world, as well as in the development of media content and the exploitation of the great opportunities offered by artificial intelligence, he pointed out.

For his part, the Chairman of the ASBU stressed that this General Assembly conference is a new opportunity to strengthen cooperation and complementarity among Arab media, describing it as a great responsibility for all parties to disseminate media content that meets the expectations of the receiver and an image that reflects the reality and progress of the Arab region.

As part of its efforts to generate investment revenues through the creation of the ASBU Company to implement its various programmes, he spoke of the "Asbu Link Centre, a mega project in the heart of Tunis that will be completed in two years".

In June 2023, ASBU announced the creation of the "ASBU Link Center" business centre in Tunis and other investment projects to be set up in the country over a period of five years, with a total budget of more than 200 million dinars."

Built over an area of 33,000 square metres, the next ASBU centre will comprise 15 floors of auditoriums, offices and a co-working space.

ASBU Link Centre will be equipped with all amenities including restaurants, accommodation units and other services for its clients and visitors.

The ASBU is an Arab professional organisation founded in 1969 to strengthen inter-Arab cooperation in the audiovisual, radio and television fields.

Since its creation in 1981, the Arab Radio and Television Festival has been held in Tunis, where the headquarters of the Arab Radio and Television Union (ASBU) is located.