As an event to celebrate the fourth ministerial meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) to be held in Egypt in November this year, the FOCAC Journalists' Seminar co-hosted by the State Council Information Office (SCIO) and the ministry of foreign affairs opened in Beijing on July 15. About 70 delegates, including the press officials and heads of mainstream media from 27 African countries, representatives of African media agencies in China and the Chinese and African journalists attended the seminar to discuss two topics, i.e. the role of media in promoting China-Africa relations and how to raise the voice of developing countries in the international public opinion. Following the seminar, the SCIO and the Foreign Ministry held a welcome dinner. Wang Chen, Minister of the SCIO, and Zhai Jun, Assistant Foreign Minister, attended the dinner and delivered speeches.

Wang made highly positive remarks on the importance of the seminar, noting that the media exchanges between China and Africa in recent years have developed steadily and media has become an important guarantee for enhancing the mutual understanding between the Chinese and the African people and maintaining the China-Africa friendly cooperation. He expressed hope that the Chinese and African media would conduct more exchanges and the media community of both sides will expand contacts in the future.

Zhai extended congratulations on the seminar and spoke highly of the role of media in boosting the China-Africa relations. He said that the exchanges and cooperation between China and Africa in the field of media is an important part of China-Africa friendly cooperation and a major content under the framework of FOCAC. He expressed confidence that the seminar will promote the bilateral cooperation on media further and deepen the mutual understanding and traditional friendship between the Chinese and the African people.

Both the Chinese and the African media participants commented positively the friendly cooperative relations between the two sides and agreed unanimously that China and Africa should further strengthen mutual understanding in order to push forward the development of bilateral ties. Media should play an important role of accelerating this process. The media of China and Africa should reinforce cooperation, promote China and Africa to the world in one voice, introduce the China-Africa pragmatic cooperation, serve as the promoters, protectors and builders of China-Africa friendship, increase the voice of China and Africa in the international public opinion, clarify the untruthful remarks on China-Africa cooperation and strive for greater say of the developing countries. They noted that such seminar and exchanges are very important and more similar activities should be held in the future.