A China-Pakistan media forum on Tuesday vowed to promote the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), urging media workers to help push forward the project for the benefit of the whole region.
   The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor Media Forum was jointly organized by the Chinese Embassy and Pakistan-China Institute in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.
   The forum was attended by over 200 media persons from both countries.
   In his welcome address, Senator Mushahid Hussain, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of the CPEC, said the forum would work as a window to provide latest and authentic information about the CPEC.
   "The media forum on the CPEC will provide information to different segments of society including students, business enterprises, civil society and private sector," said Hussain.
   Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong said, "The media forum brings us together to have extensive and in-depth discussions on the China-Pakistan friendship and cooperation, especially the CEPC. I am confident that this forum will help strengthen the media collaboration between the two sides."
   As a major and pilot project of the "Belt and Road" initiative announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Sun said the CPEC was also a comprehensive cooperation framework with four major areas of energy, transport infrastructure, industrial parks and Gwadar Port.
   Pakistan's Information Minister Pervez Rashid said the CPEC would bring positive change to the lives of billions of people and it would further strengthen deep- rooted and strategic relations between Pakistan and China. 
   Stressing the need for media support for the CPEC, Rashid assured that the ministry of information would arrange bilateral exchanges of journalists from both sides and hold media workshops to promote better understandings.
   A number of speakers presented their papers at the forum and discussed the role of Chinese and Pakistani media in the CPEC construction, media's role in promoting the West's understandings of the CPEC's regional and world significance, and how to work together toward new horizons for China-Pakistan media cooperation.
   Pakistani Minister for Planning, Development and Reforms Ahsan Iqbal said the CPEC was a not only a mega project, but a reality of the transformation of the relations between the two brotherly countries.
   "China has become the world's largest investor in Pakistan after the launch of the CPEC that will help the uplift of backward areas of Pakistan and it will also accelerate growth rates for Pakistan resulting in peace, harmony and progress," said Iqbal.
   The Islamabad bureau of Xinhua News Agency signed a cooperation agreement with Independent News Pakistan, a major news agency in the country.