Brazil, China to co-op on digitalization of historical archives

Brazil and China will exchange information on the digital preservation of historical archives, state news agency Agencia Brasil said on Monday.

Jaime Antunes, director-general of Brazil's National Archive, and Rong Hua, chief of the Tianjin Municipal Archive, reached an agreement Monday on the matter, the agency said.

Antunes said that Brazil can learn a lot from China when it comes to digital preservation of archives, as China has much more experience on this matter.

By digitalizing historical archives, the National Archive will be able to preserve documents for a longer time and make sure the information can be accessed more easily.

"The world is digital. It is inevitable that more and more digital archives are produced, so that they can be available at any time," said Antunes.

Rong stressed the importance of exchanging information with Brazil, "we can seek more information from the Brazilian side to add to the city archives" about a Brazilian consulate in Tianjin in 1909.