New media youth forum kicks off in Russian city

The Second China-Russia New Media Forum opened in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don on Monday, with collegiate participants from both countries calling for further bilateral cooperation.

"Chinese and Russian media share a common vision in increasing abilities and capabilities in international public opinions in the internet era," Zhou Shuchun, editor-in-chief of China Daily, said at the opening ceremony of the forum, which is themed on New Media-Youth Collaboration.

"During the internet era, China and Russia face a similar international public opinion environment," Zhou noted, saying that China Daily has also engaged actively in pragmatic cooperation with Russian media.

Alexei Volin, Russia's deputy minister of communications and mass media, said the use of new media as well as educating the younger generation are two important topics that Chinese and Russian media enterprises can work on together.

President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin jointly announced in May 2015 that 2016 to 2017 was the China-Russia Media Exchange Year, and that they hoped the media operations of the two countries would make new contributions to the healthy and stable development of a China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership.

Enhancing cooperation between Chinese and Russian internet media has great importance in the development of bilateral relations, said Lu Lan, deputy director-general of the Bureau of Mobile Internet Management in the Cyberspace Administration of China.

Lu said that in the future China-Russian media cooperation can focus on deepening their joint work on the internet and jointly promote Sino-Russian cultural exchanges. On pragmatic educational cooperation, Besarion Meskhi, rector of Don State Technical University, said plans are to build a joint university with Chinese partners.

The three-day forum kicked off on Sunday. It is organized by China Daily's website, chinadaily.com.cn, and Don State Technical University and is supported by China's State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television and the Russian Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications.

Young participants from China and Russia are engaged in the Media Innovation Camp in Rostov-on-Don. The innovation camp is the first one to select both Chinese and Russian youth to participate.

Pan Mengqi in Beijing contributed to this story.