ISTANBUL
Anadolu Agency (AA) inked a deal on Monday with DirectFN, the biggest news distributor in Asia and the Middle East, to reach new subscribers in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The contract was signed in Istanbul between AA’s General Director Kemal Ozturk and DirectFN’s co-founder Walid Al-Ballaa.
AA director Ozturk said during the ceremony that AA’s news, photos and videos would be distributed to the whole Middle East region, firstly to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, through DirectFN.
Ozturk said that AA is the biggest news agency in the Middle East, produces news in Arabic and has subscribers from 22 different countries, adding AA hopes to become more active in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Indicating that AA has representatives from 81 countries and more than 2,000 employees from 65 countries, Ozturk said, "Every day, we publish around 1,800 news pieces in seven different languages, as well as 1,400 photos and 250 videos. If we consider these numbers, we can assert that we are the eighth biggest news agency of the world."
He also said AA is closely interested in DirectFN's information technology and finance department.
Walid Al-Balla, the general manager of DirectFN, said their company is the biggest information technology contractor in the Middle East region.
“We have 3 thousand information technology experts who work exclusively for National Technology Group in Saudi Arabia. This is the main group of our organisation. We have research and development centers in Egypt, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. We are growing fast. We have updated systems for 13 banks in Saudi Arabia."
AA Deputy General Manager Çagatay Culcuoglu, AA Editor-in-chief of Middle East and Africa News Turan Kislakci, AA Director of Marketing Yilmaz Yaman, AA Manager of Finance Ahmet Hacifazlioglu and AA Istanbul Regional Director Mustafa Ekici participated in the signing ceremony.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
