Timor-Leste Seeks Malaysia's Help To Establish Official Google Presence

By Nur Atiq Maisarah Suhaimi

BUTTERWORTH,  June 20 (Bernama) -- Timor-Leste has sought Malaysia's assistance in facilitating cooperation with Google to establish an official presence of the technology company in the country, thereby enabling local digital content creators to generate income and expand its creative economy.

Timor-Leste Secretary of State for Social Communication Expedito Loro Dias Ximenes said the absence of official representatives from Google and YouTube in the country is among the main challenges preventing local content creators from generating income through the platforms' monetisation programmes.

"The Minister (of Communications, Datuk Fahmi Fadzil) has promised to help us (Timor-Leste) by sending Google specialists to our country to engage with us, particularly to support content creators there, especially young people who are highly skilled in the field," he told Bernama.

Earlier, he had a meeting with Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil on the sidelines of the National Journalists' Day (HAWANA) 2026 summit, held at the PICCA @ Arena Butterworth Convention Centre here on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Ximenes said Malaysia and Timor-Leste had also agreed to strengthen media cooperation through the sharing of news, photos and multimedia content, as well as journalism training and journalist exchange programmes.

The Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) and Timor-Leste's news agency, Agência Noticiosa de Timor-Leste (TATOLI), signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Saturday to strengthen media cooperation between the two ASEAN member states.

The MoU was signed by Bernama Chief Executive Officer Datin Paduka Nur-ul Afida Kamaludin and TATOLI President Noémio Mateus Soares Falcão on behalf of the two agencies.

"The Minister and I have agreed to continue the cooperation following the MoU exchanged today between TATOLI, Timor-Leste and Bernama, through the sharing of content materials and training for journalists, with journalists from Timor-Leste coming to Malaysia and Malaysians going to Timor-Leste," he said.

He said the cooperation is also expected to be expanded into the broadcasting sector through collaboration between Rádio e Televisão de Timor-Leste and Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM).

“The Minister immediately called its (RTM) director-general (Ashwad Ismail) to inform him about establishing cooperation in the near future,” he added.

Ximenes is in Malaysia with a Timor-Leste delegation, including TATOLI President and Deputy President Madalena DE JCP Carlos, to attend the HAWANA 2026 summit.

The sixth edition of HAWANA, themed “Media Integrity Strengthens Credibility”, brought together about 1,000 local and foreign media practitioners and was launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

-- BERNAMA