New Delhi, May 25 (IANS): India Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Afghanistan for building capacities in that country for development of media policies, graphic designing, broadcasting activities and marketing of programmes.

The MoU was signed by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni and Afghan Minister of Information and Culture Sayed Makhdoom Raheen.

Soni said the initiative would enable Afghanistan to learn from key policy initiatives taken by her ministry concerning digitalisation, self regulation and content management.

According to an official spokesman, Soni gave an overview of the policy changes that have enabled the growth of the media and entertainment industry in the last few years in India.

Raheen said the agreement will enable his country to draw a roadmap for media policies and strategies in the future.

The spokesman said the focus of the MoU was on capacity development in areas such as development of media policies and strategies, and independent and free press in Afghanistan.

The MoU also covers identification of areas of reforms, development and standardisation of media related programmes, graphic designing, production of documentaries and films, production and broadcasting activities of the Radio and Television of Afghanistan (RTA), including content management and marketing of TV and radio programmes for revenue generation.

The spokesman said that the MoU has been signed in the backdrop of a range of activities being conducted by the ministry, including training by Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) to Afghan journalists.

India has helped build the RTA stations at Jalalabad.

India is also providing satellite uplinking facilities to the RTA. A process has also been initiated to facilitate the flow of films from India into Afghanistan, the spokesman added.