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Harare Bureau
CAPE Town, South Africa will on Tuesday play host to the inaugural Sino-Africa Media Leadership Summit, which will bring together some 200 professionals from the continent and China. The summit is organised by the State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China, and co-organised by StarTimes Group (China) and Naspers Group (South Africa).

Themed “A New Era of Win-Win Media Cooperation between China and Africa”, its main aim will be to facilitate exchanges and boost the traditionally strong ties between the two sides.

Represented at the meeting will be newspapers and news agencies, television and radio, and new media organisations from 43 countries, including Zimbabwe, South Africa, China, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire and Egypt.

The Chinese government established its SCIO in 1991 to “introduce China to the outside world including Chinese internal and external principles and policies, the economic and social status, the history as well as the development in science, education and culture”.

The SCIO has continuous collaboration with governments and the news media, while also promoting reportage on international affairs.

StarTimes, founded in 1988, is headquartered in Beijing and has more than 4,000 employees.

It is one of China’s top broadcast organisations and has been rated among the best 100 science and technology enterprises by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce.

It has been in the Forbes’ China Potential Enterprises List for five consecutive years.

The group’s major strengths are system integration, technology provision and network operation, and it has over seven million cable digital TV subscribers.

StarTimes is presently investing heavily in the African digital TV market by setting up operations in 28 countries to date, with a view to challenging the dominance of DStv.

Naspers is a global platform operator with principal operations in Internet services, especially e-commerce. It was founded in 1915 and has primary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Naspers is operating in 120 countries.