Zhou Xisheng, Vice President of Xinhua News Agency, made the commitment on Wednesday in Beijing while granting audience to some journalists from Africa and Asia.

Relations between Xinhua News Agency and media organisations in Africa will henceforth be reinforced through in-depth training and exchange programmes that foster South - South cooperation. Receiving 11 journalists from Africa and Asia prior to the close of the World Media Summit (WMS) training programme, Mr Zhou Xisheng, Vice President of Xinhua, reiterated the special relations that exist between China and African countries; insisting that such cooperation ties need to be reinforced.
Zhou Xisheng said Africa and China had enjoyed cordial relationships for decades; adding that his country would continue to support the African continent in its development initiatives. He laid emphasis on Xinhua, noting that the Agency will continue to train journalists from Africa on the latest trends in journalism either through short or long term programmes. According to him, the agency will also extend media training programmes to journalists from Francophone countries. ``We will help to train journalists from Francophone countries but we need to make arrangements to know the format that the training will take. We may train them in our bureau office in Paris,’’ he said. The Vice President told the journalists that Xinhua was leading in online journalism; saying language had been a barrier to the agency in leading in text stories. He said western media among others were leading in news reporting, but if anything happens in Asia, Xinhua will be the first to break it. “Xinhua is still developing; we are learning from western media as well as from you from Africa countries. We are making efforts to become better and better everyday. We can learn a lot from African countries, so we need your support,’’ Xisheng said.
Earlier, the Vice President urged the beneficiaries to use the knowledge acquired during the training to address the challenges facing the media sector. ``The challenge in the sector now is to adapt to online journalism which is different from traditional media. Online journalism is developing rapidly and you have to be prepared for challenges of this new trend. I started my carrier about 40 years ago and l must say that Xinhua is still developing. In the past Xinhua was more oriented in news reporting within China. Now we are going global and we have started recruiting local staff in Africa”, he said.
Peter Efande (from SOPECAM, Cameroon) reacted on behalf of the 11 beneficiaries. He expressed satisfaction on the outcome of the training and expressed appreciation for opportunity offered him and his colleagues by Xinhua and the World Media Summit (WMS) Secretariat. He said the knowledge gained from the training would not only broaden their knowledge in online journalism but also on China. “The field trips to parts of China have made us to have impressive knowledge about various development projects in the country. The training has made us exchange ideas with Chinese journalists and fellow professionals from other Third World countries. We hope that this special relationship after this training will continue to foster,’’ he said.
It should be recalled that the training programme aimed at building the capacity of Third World journalists on the latest trends in journalism, is organised by the WMS and hosted by Xinhua.