Zhang Yang

    nicolezyyy@163.com

    A MEDIA delegation from Uzbekistan visited the Shenzhen Press Group yesterday morning, with both sides showing interest in developing cross-border media cooperation.

    Five delegates visited the newsroom of DT News, a Chinese-language news app operated by Shenzhen Special Zone Daily, and toured the press group’s honors room to learn about the group’s history and achievements before they attended a meeting with the group’s leadership.

    “It’s of great importance for us to communicate with local media in China and learn from each other,” said Obidov Mukhammad Dolimovich, chairman of the Creative Union of Journalists of Uzbekistan in Ferghana region.

    According to him, there are around 1,400 media outlets in Uzbekistan, including 989 newspapers, 200 magazines, 176 websites, 70 TV channels and 26 broadcasting channels, over 70 percent of which are privately owned.

    He said that there were many Chinese-funded companies, including some financed by Shenzhen enterprises, in Uzbekistan and he hoped that the media cooperation and exchange between Shenzhen and Uzbekistan would be further strengthened.

    The chairman said that Shenzhen, as a garden city covered with green plants, had impressed him a lot and also has changed his impression of Chinese cities as he had read some news before about the heavy air pollution in North China.

    Safar Ostonov, a distinguished journalist in Uzbekistan and editor-in-chief of the Uzbekistan Ovozi newspaper, said that China was not only a close neighbor of Uzbekistan’s but also a trustworthy friend and partner of his country.

    Ostonov said that his newspaper and Shenzhen Press Group could closely cooperate with each other by exchanging experiences and news information. “We would be happy to tell our people what’s happening in Shenzhen as well as tell the Shenzhen people what’s happening in our country,” he said.

    Ding Shizhao, vice editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Press Group and editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Evening News, said that the press group was also looking forward to building long-term partnerships with media in Uzbekistan. He said that Shenzhen is a young city that gets a new look every three months. “We will get old, but this city will never get old,” he said.