China and countries that are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will seize opportunities created by the digital economy to strengthen media exchanges and enhance mutual understanding, with more communication and cooperation on public health and poverty elimination sectors, participants in a forum said.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, media professionals from China and ASEAN member states have played an important role in building consensus and inspiring people, providing a better environment for public opinion on regional development and global economic recovery, said Guo Weimin, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office of China.

"Holding the vision of a community with a shared future, Chinese and ASEAN media should promote the development of a global community of health for humanity and see the digital economy as an opportunity to further contribute to cooperation in economy and trade," he said while making a keynote speech at the 2020 ASEAN-China Media Cooperation Forum on Oct 23 in Beijing.

Guo also called for media organizations to conduct more information exchanges to lay a solid foundation of friendly relations and cooperation.

About 60 participants from China and 10 ASEAN member states, including media representatives and officials of information departments, participated in the forum either in person or online.

The forum was co-hosted by the China International Publishing Group and the ASEAN-China Centre.

Regarding media communication as a crucial part of China-ASEAN relations, Kung Phoak, deputy secretary-general of ASEAN, suggested media explore new cooperative means to forge closer ties in the digital economy and on social media platforms.

Du Zhanyuan, president of the publishing group, said China and ASEAN countries face more challenges in terms of epidemic prevention and restoring their economies.

He said media organizations in China and ASEAN countries can jointly push forward the development of regional public health governance, the digital economy, and poverty alleviation.

An e-book entitled Keywords to Understand China: Targeted Poverty Elimination was also released at the forum in the English, Indonesian, Thai, Lao, and Vietnamese languages.