At the invitation of Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting of India, Mr. Xu Guangchun, Deputy Minister, Publicity Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CCCPC) and Minister of State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), paid a working visit to India at the head of a SARFT delegation from February 4 to 8. The visit achieved positive results.
During the visit, Minister Xu Guangchun had a meeting with his counterpart Prasad and they exchanged views on the management and development of radio, film and television as well as the exchanges and cooperation between the two countries. H.E. Mr. Hua Junduo, Chinese Ambassador to India, was present at the meeting. The two sides reached consensus on wide-ranging cooperation, including annual mutual visits by film delegations, hosting film weeks of either country, attending the other's international film festivals, co-production of films, showing the other's films and conducting cooperation in children's films, cartoons and documentary films. Minister Xu stressed that as friendly neighbors and countries with ancient civilizations, China and India should construct modern civilizations together. We should not only develop political, economic and military relations, but also strengthen the exchanges and cooperation in the fields of film, television, culture and journalism. Hence cooperation in the field of film production was of great importance. Minister Prasad said that Minister Xu's visit reopened the door to film and television cooperation between India and China, which would show a friendly bilateral relationship to the world.
Minister Xu also met with Mr. K. S. Sarma, CEO of Prasar Bharati, Mr. Chandra, Chairman of the Essel Group with whom he signed a cooperative agreement on downlinking and distribution of CCTV-9 in India and some other film personalities of India. Minister Xu visited the Moving Pictures Ltd. Studio, ZEE NEWS Studio, Bollywood, the Film City in Mumbai, and made a thorough study of Indian film and television industries.
(Chinese Embassy in India)
