Photo shows the attendees of the 7th CPEC Media Forum held online and offline on June 2, 2022.
BEIJING, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Experts from China and Pakistan called for stronger joint efforts in telling true stories of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), at the 7th CPEC Media Forum on Thursday.
Held both online and offline, the forum brought high profile attendees including diplomats, policy makers, experts from media, think tanks and business associations together to delve into the construction of the CPEC, China-Pakistan trade and media's role in telling stories of the CPEC.
CPEC cooperation has achieved fruitful results, under which the two sides have initiated or completed 46 of the 70 early harvest projects with a total investment of 25.4 billion U.S. dollars, according to Pang Chunxue, Charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan.
Pang said that the media of China and Pakistan have the responsibility of speaking out for fairness and justice, and should be a positive force for CPEC, for world peace and stability, adding that both countries' media should form in-depth cooperation in terms of exchange of news materials, co-production of programs, personnel training and co-organizing of activities, especially on CPEC.
"I have witnessed the high-quality execution of the CPEC projects across the country. It is heartening that the scope of CPEC has expanded to include other priority areas including socio-economic development, poverty alleviation, and industrial and agricultural cooperation through special economic zones," said Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Speaker of the National Assembly of Pakistan.
"CPEC has over the years been a victim of a malicious disinformation campaign by the detractors of CPEC and China ," he said, adding that the media has a responsibility to report fairly and factually on CPEC, and there is a need for large-scale outreach efforts towards mitigating the apprehensions of local communities for those vicious propaganda campaigns.
Information exchange is a vital part to facilitate various cooperation in terms of infrastructure construction, trade and investment, public health and people-to-people exchange, according to Li Yue, Vice President and Director at China Economic Information Service (CEIS), Xinhua News Agency.
She said that the Belt and Road Economic Information Partnership (BREIP), launched in 2019, has provided a reliable platform to pool information resources and build communication synergy.
A new book on CPEC stories was also released at the event, which is jointly held by Pakistan-China Institute and China Economic Net.
(Edited by Li Shimeng with Xinhua Silk Road, lishimeng@xinhua.org)
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