Shandong: China's Showcase For Asean

SHANDONG: CHINA’S SHOWCASE FOR ASEAN By Zakaria Abdul Wahab JINAN (China), Dec 7 (Bernama) -- A journalist from a Chinese daily asked this writer if he had heard of Shandong, a province in China, before arriving in this city. " Yes, sure!” this writer replied. “Most Malaysians know of Shandong!" In Malaysia, there are many groundnut products that carry the brand name Shandong on their packets, and the groundnuts are sold in many supermarkets. "Either the groundnuts come from Shandong or the maker originated from the province," this writer told the journalist, who was obviously delighted after hearing the remarks during an interview at a hotel in Jinan, the capital city of Shandong province. The writer was in the city recently to attend The Fourth 10+3 Media Cooperation Forum, organised by the biggest and most influential Chinese daily, the People’s Daily, and hosted by another media conglomerate, Dazhong News Group. About 40 journalists and editors from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), China, Japan and South Korea took part in the forum, the fourth in a series, plus a tour to three cities in the Shandong peninsula - Jinan, Zibo and Qingdao. The forum, initiated by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, was first held in Tianjin in 2007. The second covered two cities, Tianjin and Beijing, in 2008, and the third in 2010 involved Shanghai, Tianjin and Beijing. This year, the forum focused on three topics, namely, media cooperation, the new media and the development of Shandong Province vis-à-vis Asean. ASIAN MEDIA SHOULD ACT AS ONE On the first topic, the forum deliberated over how the Asian media can deepen their collaboration in the region, as well as strengthen the collaboration and act as one Asian voice on the international media stage. Wang Zhongwei, Vice Minister of State Council Office, said Asian media practitioners should exchange ideas on how to improve reporting on Asia and not rely so much on Western-dominated media for news coverage. He said they can play an active role in promoting harmonious relations between their countries by capitalising on the media, telling their own stories and reporting on each other’s countries. They can promote their cultures, traditions and Asian values to the world, so that others outside the region can understand them better and adapt their good values, he added. THE THREAT OF NEW MEDIA The forum also touched on the advent of the new media, which have increasingly posed a serious challenge to the future of the traditional media -- newspapers, television, radio, and even news agencies. Zhongwei said Asian media practitioners should take advantage of the new media to further develop and bring common prosperity to the region, as well as propagate Asian ways in resolving global issues in the world. During the roundtable talk, majority of the Asean media representatives voiced their concerns about the threat posed by new media on the traditional forms, citing big drops in sales and the demise of some newspapers in some parts of the world as proof of the peril. However, several newspaper editors noted the contrary, saying the industry is yet to be written off, as the public still prefer traditional media as more authoritative, truthful and credible. The acting deputy editor of the Brunei-based daily Borneo Bulletin, Lance Thoo Sin Lin, said, “What still matters most to the public are accurate and credible contents” which the new media (such as blogs, twitters, Facebook) cannot guarantee. To survive, the forum heard, the traditional media must adapt to changes brought by new media, such as providing space for varied opinions or views and accommodating Internet social media as mainstream media. The forum agreed that the traditional media should be willing to innovate, build applications based on mobile devices, employ skilled and professional journalists, and make their web presence felt. Apart from keeping-up with the latest applications, Malaysia’s Sin Chew Daily Deputy Editor-in-Chief Tay Tian Yan said, traditional media must be tailored-made to suit local needs by having strong local contents, and they must be willing to engage with the local populace. He went further by saying that, in Malaysia, the government under the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, are now more liberal toward the media, and are taking positive moves to deregulate the press and printing laws. SHANDONG THE BULWARK OF CHINA’S ECONOMY After the forum, media delegates were taken to several zones showcasing Shandong as one of the premier provinces steadily becoming the bulwark of China’s economy. In 2010, the nominal GDP (gross domestic products) of Shandong, with a population of nearly 100 million people, was US$600 billion, ranking third in China after Guangdong and Jiangsu. Its GDP per capita was US$6,365, ranking eighth. Early this year, Shandong became the first province in China to carry out a national development strategy focusing on marine economy after the country’s State Council approved the Shandong Peninsula Blue Economic Zone Plan, covering 64,000 sq km of land with six cities -- Qingdao, Dongying, Yantai, Weifang, Weihai and Rizhao. Industries in the zone include equipment manufacturing, mineral and resource exploration, fishing, transportation, tourism, engineering, and environmental protection. In the first half of the year, the zone's output was US$164 billion. Shandong, which is rich in mineral resources and numerous industries, has a good relationship in economic and trade cooperation with Asean, making it the fourth-largest trade partner of the province. Media delegates got a glimpse of Shandong’s advanced technology and modern industries, which have made in-roads in the international markets, when they visited the Zibo industrial zone. One company, Jinjing Group, produces high-grade glass products with diverse properties, such as heat-saving and green technology for use in buildings. The Burj Al Khalifa in Dubai, the world’s tallest building, uses their glass products. Another company, the Shinva Medical Instrument Co Ltd, is the only company in China that manufactures a full series of medical equipment from basic cutting tools to the complicated ones. The company’s history dates to the First World War. The coastal city of Qingdao prides itself of being one of the national bases for the multi-million dollar comic, animation and game business, where young, creative Chinese produce cartoon movies for China Central Television channels and other television stations. The city is also the home to a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, Hisense, which has home-appliance manufacturing, communication, and information-technology businesses. The company, which employs 60,000 people globally, produces 3D and Internet televisions, energy-saving air conditioners, smart refrigerators, mobile phones and washing machines, among other products. Hisense is also the world’s first producer of personal intelligent Television, where the viewer can interact with the television by playing games and remotely controlling it with their hands. THE TOURISTIC SHANDONG The Shandong peninsula is also well-known as a tourist destination for the Chinese. Qingdao, especially, boasts several attractions, including the Qingdao Olympic Sailing Boat Centre (the city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics Sailing competition) and the Tsingtao brewery museum. Located on the Yellow Sea between Beijing and Shanghai, the city is brimming with gleaming skyscrapers, but still retains its old colonial buildings, influenced by European architecture, particularly that of Germany. The Germans occupied the city over 100 years ago, when they turned the port into a naval base. Now the city port is the headquarters of the Chinese North Sea Fleet and also the base for its nuclear-powered submarines. In Zibo city, one can visit China’s largest pottery museum, which has collections of ceramic artifacts from all over China, some dating back more than 4,000 years. Pottery and ceramic exhibits from other parts of the world, such as the United States, South Africa, Korea and Japan, are seen on display in the museum, but none from Asean countries. Maybe this is the right occasion for the Asean media representatives, back home after the forum, to get their countries to offer their indigenous ceramic or pottery to the museum, as a mark of the strong camaraderie between Asean and China. And maybe Malaysia can send Perak’s labu sayong to the museum. -- BERNAMA