Beijing, June 27, AZERTAC

The inaugural meeting of the Belt and Road Economic Information Partnership online platform, named BRInfo, has been held in the Chinese capital of Beijing.

Initiated by the Xinhua news agency, BRInfo aims to better meet the increasing information demand from Belt and Road member economies and to further encourage the free sharing of economic information both among the member countries across the Belt and Road Initiative. BREIP members are obliged to provide publishable economic information, including research results concerning investment, trade, industry, projects and enterprises to BRInfo for sharing, and at the same time enjoy the rights to use the content on the platform, free of charge.

The Azerbaijan State News Agency (AZERTAC), as one of the first media organizations that supported this initiative of Xinhua, is also one of its founding members. Through this platform, AZERTAC will be able to expand the outreach of its news about the economic development, large-scale energy projects, business and investment environment of Azerbaijan, which is located along the international trade routes and transport corridors, the activity of the Trans-Caspian international transport route, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which provides the shortest railroad between Asia and Europe as well as the country's logistics potential, tourism infrastructure, foreign trade and economic legislation.

Addressing the inaugural meeting, president of Xinhua News Agency Cai Mingzhao expressed his gratitude to the representatives of more than 30 institutions from 26 countries who were closely involved in the establishment of the platform. “The BREIP is a clear example of the effective cooperation established among the influential media outlets. The online platform brings together not only the media, but also research centers, chambers of commerce and industry, creating new opportunities for their cooperation. The news, analytical articles and researches published by the media outlets and other organizations, which are included in the platform, will be spread at the BRInfo internet portal,” the Xinhua president said.

IMF Senior Resident Representative for China Alfred Schipke, Chairman of the Board of Italy's Class Editori media company Paolo Panerai, First Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Russian News Agency TASS Marat Abulkhatin, Director General of Brazil's CMA news agency Rafael Bozzolan Juan and others noted that the Economic Information Partnership will open up ample opportunities for the countries to inform each other of innovations occurring in their economic life.

Following the inauguration ceremony, the Statutes of the Belt and Road Economic Information Partnership was adopted at the first meeting of the platform. Xinhua news agency shall provide the coordinating office for the platform.

AZERTAC’s special correspondent in China Shahin Jafarov conveyed the congratulations of the Agency’s Chairman of Board, President of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and member of News Agencies World Council Aslan Aslanov. He said that AZERTAC, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year, is actively engaged in the international media cooperation as a leading news agency both in the country and in the region. “It was due to the news agency's broad activities on the international media scene that it successfully hosted the 5th News Agencies World Congress, the 16th OANA General Assembly and the 22nd session of the Council of CIS Heads of News Agencies in November 2016 in Azerbaijan,” he added.

AZERTAC, wiring the round-the-clock news in Azerbaijani, English, Russian, French, German, Arabic, Chinese and Spanish languages, maintains successful cooperation with Chinese media outlets, including Xinhua news agency, Jenmin Jibao, China Daily and Global Times newspapers. AZERTAC and Xinhua news agencies enjoy close cooperation within the News Agencies World Congress and OANA. The cooperation agreement between the two state agencies was signed on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s first media forum in Beijing.