China has urged the world to resist trade protectionism in a bid to ensure inclusive economic development for people across the globe.
Narrating the objectives of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), senior Chinese leaders said on Tuesday the spirit of BRI is to ensure a win-win situation for the stakeholder countries through openness in trade and investment.
"BRI is a road of development and prosperity. It is the road through which mutual respect and mutual benefit among the partner countries will be established," said Ji Bingxuan, vice chairman of Standing Committee of Communist Party of China (CPC).
Addressing the opening session of the 5th Belt and Road Media Cooperation Forum at Boao Island, he mentioned that trade volume in the BRI partner countries has increased to US$ 5.0 trillion.
China invested $70 billion in the BRI partner countries, and 11 Chinese banks were involved in funding BRI projects.
Ji Bingxuan urged the gathering of over 800 media personnel to promote the spirit of BRI, which according to him, is safeguarding open economy.
He said China will work together with other countries to ensure sustainable development and peace for the world through implementing BRI.
Among others, Li Baoshan, president of the People's Daily, Quin Hongshan, vice minister - International Department of CPC, Jinag Jianguo, deputy head - publicity department of CPC, Liu Cigui, secretary of CPC Hainan Provincial Committee, Ng Yat Chung, CEO of Singapore Press Holdings Ltd, also spoke on the occasion.
Li Baoshan said BRI is against the power politics of bullying neighbouring countries.
"It is not a zero-sum game, but it is for creating a win-win situation for all."
He mentioned that the People's Daily has signed deals with 26 BRI partner countries for exchanging news.
Later, in a separate session on use of artificial intelligence (AI) in media, the speakers opined that AI will play a supportive role for news outlets through enhancing efficiency.
But it will not be able to replace the professional human intelligence, they added.
A Bangladesh delegation, including Shamsul Huq Zahid - joint editor of the Financial Express, and Minar Mansur - assistant editor of the daily Ittefaq, took part in the forum.
The People's Daily of China hosted the forum, which is dubbed as the biggest media gathering of the world.
Natalia Loseva - deputy editor-in-chief of Information Agency and Radio Sputnik of Russia, John Liu - executive editor of Bloomberg News of China, Jacqueline Lampe - CEO of RNW Media of the Netherlands, and Ding Wei - director of New Media Centre of the People's Daily, also spoke at the panel discussion.
The media experts opined that introduction of new technology is crucial for survival of media outlets in a competitive age, but delivering credible and objective news contents is more important than that.
