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  Call for voices from developing countries  By Qin Jize (China Daily)  Updated: 2005-08-17 05:50  
 China's top press officer yesterday vowed to strengthen media co-operation 
with Africa to raise voices from the developing world. 
 
 
 
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 | Cai Wu, the newly-appointed minister of the Information Office of 
 the State Council, chats with Belinda Ayessa (left) from Republic of Congo 
 and other guests yesterday at the opening reception of the workshop. 
 [newsphoto] |   Cai Wu, the newly-appointed minister 
of the State Council Information Office, made the remark at the opening 
reception of a Sino-African information research workshop. It was his first 
foreign affairs function after assuming office. 
Press officials and the heads of major media organizations from 18 
French-speaking African countries are participating in the 12-day event, during 
which they are expected to attend press seminars, meet Chinese press officials 
and visit media operations in Beijing and other cities. The first workshop was 
held last year. 
 "China and African countries should work together to change the current 
situation in international opinion, in which developing countries are reported 
in a distorted and unfair way," Cai said. 
 Effective communications have been established between 
his office and its counterparts in many African countries, Cai said. 
 
 
 
 
   Cai Wu, 
 newly-appointed minister of the Information Office of the State Council. 
 [newsphoto] |    
 
Speaking on behalf of the African delegation, Atta Yacouba, an information 
official from Cote d'Ivoire, said they appreciated China's support and hoped to 
gain insight into China's achievements in the media from the event. 
 During the Second Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa 
Co-operation in 2003, China pledged to further increase its financial aid to the 
African Human Resources Development Fund for the training of up to 10,000 
African personnel in three years. 
 Cai, 56, holds a PhD in law and serves as professor in the School of 
International Relations at the Renmin University of China. 
 Before taking the current post, he had worked at the International Department 
of the Central Committee of the CPC since March 1995, working up to the position 
of vice-minister. 
  
  
 
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