With the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit 2024 approaching, a media exchange titled "Symphony of Civilization and Digital Dream Builder: 'African Partners'" was held in Beijing on Saturday.
The event, hosted by China Media Group (CMG), aims to strengthen media cooperation between China and Africa and promote cultural exchanges and mutual learning in the digital age. The meeting attracted more than 200 participants, including representatives from international organizations, media, think tanks and other sectors from China and more than 20 African countries.
Several African leaders, including Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Central African Republic President Faustino-Archange Touadera and Seychelles President Wavelo Ramkalawan, shared their messages via video. They expressed support for enhanced media exchanges and practical cooperation between China and Africa.
Ugandan President Museveni said that China is an important partner of Africa and praised the activities organised by the CMG. He expressed his hope to strengthen contacts between young people from both regions in order to build stronger future relations.
President Touadera of the Central African Republic praised the cultural exchange organised by the CMG, expressed confidence that it would serve as an important platform for cultural dialogue and wished it success.
President Ramkalawan of Seychelles also expressed his support and stressed the value of deepening media exchanges and practical cooperation between the two countries.
The ongoing comprehensive reforms in China are creating new opportunities to strengthen the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Africa, said Shen Haixiong, Vice Minister for Publicity of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chairman of the CMG. He said the CMG strives to link cultural exchanges between China and Africa and promote these narratives globally.
Shen noted that an effective China-Africa media partnership depends on compelling storytelling, close collaboration and innovation. CMG is leveraging more than 320 African collaborative resources to enhance cross-cultural communication and developing "5G+4K and 8K+AI" technology to improve media quality and productivity.
CMG will work closely with its African partners to exchange cultural knowledge, promote upgrading and jointly build a high-level Sino-African community with a shared future, Shen added.
The theme of the upcoming FOCAC Summit in 2024 is "To advance modernization together and build a high-level Sino-African community with a shared future," said Vice Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong, adding that the summit will introduce new initiatives, including enhanced Sino-African media and cultural cooperation.
Chen hopes media from both sides will highlight the deepening Sino-African friendship, mutual benefits and joint modernisation efforts. He also called for reporting on new ideas and initiatives of the summit and stressed the importance of promoting peace, justice and common development.
Politicians from several African countries, including South Africa, the Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Egypt, Burundi and Cameroon, sent video messages expressing their hope that African and Chinese media will strengthen cooperation in various fields and work together to share the story of China-Africa development.
The event featured the CMG-produced documentary "Close Friends Across Continents", which showcases China and Africa's achievements in science, technology, economics and cultural exchange. The documentary will be broadcast on CCTV-4 and CGTN's English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian channels during the summit, with additional broadcasts in many African countries. Since 15 August, the promotional spot has appeared on 1,297 outdoor screens, 19 national TV stations and 13 new media websites, reaching nearly 1.4 billion people in 54 African countries.
In recent years, CMG has continuously hosted a number of film and television shows that have been very popular with African audiences. Four Chinese films have already been screened in Egypt and Tanzania and 10 African films will be shown on university campuses in Beijing, Xi'an and Chengdu.
During the event, CMG partnered with 11 leading media organisations in East Africa. This mechanism will focus on programme sharing, joint interviews and productions, exhibitions of quality programmes, annual news releases, collaboration with think tanks and cultural exchanges.
A consensus document on the media cooperation mechanism was also published at the event. The initiative, launched by the CMG and 64 major African media organisations from 25 countries, aims to build a quality Sino-African media partnership. It aims to objectively strengthen the voice of the global South and jointly build a high-level Sino-African community with a shared future.
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