June 21,Chongqing, China News Net, by Guo Hong
On June 21, 36 African press officers attending the 7th media-training program visited the new site of Chongqing Radio and Television Building and the Chongqing local website portal. Pereira Olivio, the head of the 19-African-country press officer program, said that as China and Africa shared a long and deep friendship, boosting exchange visits and cooperation of the Sino-African press was of great importance for promoting indepth understanding and mutual trust between China and Africa as well as between the peoples.
Pereira Olivio said it was his second visit to Chongqing and compared with the previous visit in last July, Chongqing's rapid development in high technology and new look of modern urban construction in this visit left him a deep impression. He benefited a lot from visiting Chongqing's media building and learning about the development of the new media technology and management expertise in China. He hoped that China could send professional media practitioners to visit African countries. He would also apply the knowledge learned in the program to his future work.
During the visit, Diouf Emmy, press adviser to the Foreign Minister of Senegal, said that as far as people who had not been to China were concerned, they learn about China mainly through the overseas media, so for many of them the impression still remained that of the situation in 1960s. After the visit to Chongqing, she was amazed by China's modernization and would like to express sincere congratulations on China's gratifying achievements in the economic and social development. At the same time, she also expressed intention for China and Africa to carry out further media cooperation and visits.
According to Ding Xiaoming, deputy director of the State Council Information Office, over 200 African press officers from 46 countries attending this program have visited China, who were informed of the real situation in China through taking lectures, seminars, tours and other activities for promoting Sino-African friendly relations, bringing understanding and mutual trust between the peoples, and starting cooperation in new areas.
"As China and Africa are far apart, the peoples are dependent on the media to learn about each other." Ding Xiaoming said that with the rapid development of the modern internet technology, online media have sprung up everywhere, which has many advantages such as timeliness and interactivity that can spread the voice of China and introduce the real China to the world in a faster and better way.
On the evening of 21, He Shizhong, member of the Chongqing CPC Municipal Standing Committee and director general of the Publicity Department, met with the press officers attending the program and said that to know about Chongqing would help them to have an overview of the development of western China. China and Africa both belonged to the Third World and are all developing countries. China and Africa have shared good diplomatic relations since they were established half a century ago. The media have played an important role in promoting friendly cooperation between China and Africa. In recent years, the State Council Information Office has organized five groups of the program attendees to visit Chongqing, so as to give the visitors from the African countries a better understanding of a city in western China.
