A total of 1,818 overseas journalists, including correspondents from the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan, have registered to cover the upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

That is 6.7 percent more than those who covered the 18th CPC National Congress five years ago, Hu Xiaohan, director of the congress’s press center, said at a media reception attended by more than 500 overseas journalists on Oct 16.

Hu said the foreign journalists come from 134 countries, about 20 percent more than in 2012.

For the first time, the press center opened an official WeChat account, which provides online information for journalists about the agendas, notices and other items of interest.

The center first developed a registration system for media applications, accepting those from foreign media and from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

“Everybody is waiting for what the congress is to come out with,” said Kajubi Mukajanga, executive secretary of the Media Council of Tanzania. He attended a forum on the Belt and Road Initiative with media organizations from several countries earlier in the day. He said he will focus on China’s stability, economic growth and poverty alleviation efforts at the congress.

Many journalists are looking at China’s endeavors in areas like poverty relief. Mukajanga said China’s poverty alleviation is a “truly alternative way of doing things”.

Bipul Pokhrel, vice-president of the Federation of Nepali Journalists, said media can work with the government to enhance poverty alleviation. “Media can support the government. It’s possible to create change for good. That’s a great message from China to us,” he said.

Aly Diouf, a journalist from Senegal, said he is impressed with anti-desertification steps being taken in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

“At every step, there are efforts — the national, provincial, municipal and district levels. Things are being done to enable people to leave poverty and live with dignity,” Diouf said. “The congress allows us, as African journalists, to experience China in our own way. We Africans see there are positive things here in the Chinese (system).”