Foreign and Military Affairs

China, ASEAN to better media ties

By Zhang Chunyan (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-16 09:23

Wang Chen (fourth from left), minister of the State Council Information Office, talks with representatives attending the Second Conference of China-ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Information on Wednesday in Beijing. Zhang Tao / China Daily

BEIJING - China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will increase information exchanges and media cooperation to a comprehensive and higher level, ministers and representatives from China and the ten ASEAN countries have announced.

"Government departments should guide and facilitate media cooperation among countries" to promote training and exchange among journalists, Wang Chen, minister of the State Council Information Office, said during an opening keynote speech here at the Second Conference of China-ASEAN Ministers Responsible for Information on Wednesday.

Wang added that China hopes the conference will become a mechanism, to be held every two years - and that China is willing to be the host.

Ministers and representatives from ASEAN countries echoed the themes in Wang's speech.

"We should increase exchanges among different media," said Sim Gim Guan, deputy secretary of Singapore's Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts.

"ASEAN countries," he added, "are willing to cooperate more with China, which has a brilliant 5,000-year history".

Herminio Coloma, Secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office of the Philippines, likewise said that ASEAN and China should set up training bases for journalists.

Wang further noted that China and ASEAN should strengthen cooperation in new media - including the Internet and the fast-evolving technologies of mobile phone.

The number of Internet users in China peaked at 420 million in July, with an Internet penetration rate of 31.8 percent, according to Wang.

With the world gradually recovering from the financial crisis, a China-ASEAN Free Trade Zone has been built up in an all-around way, Wang said, adding that China and ASEAN news media now have a greater framework in which to create a more favorable environment for peace and multilateral development.

"Media from China and ASEAN (nations) should introduce Asian news to the world in a truthful, objective and comprehensive way," Wang added.

"The geopolitical and historical relations between China and ASEAN allow for close cooperation in every field," Wei Ling, an expert on Japanese studies at the China Foreign Affairs University, told China Daily.

Only via regional cooperation can China and ASEAN nations best "articulate" themselves on the world stage, noted Liu Xiaoying, a professor at the Communication Research Institute of Communication University of China.

Liu said this new media cooperation has tremendous significance. "Unlike the traditional media, the developing countries have more chances in new media competing with the Western countries," he said.

The conference was held under the theme of "strengthening information exchange and building mutually beneficial regional relations".

ASEAN currently consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Attending the conference were high-level delegates of ministries of information from China and ASEAN countries, their staffers, senior officials of the ASEAN Secretariat, as well as diplomatic representatives from ASEAN nations in addition to Chinese government officials and editorial staff from major Chinese media outlets.

Yang Jing contributed to this story.