Asian media leaders said on Thursday they will build an "information Silk Road" to help communicate the benefits the Belt and Road Initiative will bring.

Suthichai Saeyoon, founder of the Asia News Network, said in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, that the initiative will provide a platform for information exchange.

"We as media will have a role in reporting, analyzing, and getting all the information that is necessary to be critical about the initiative, because we don't want the initiative to be confined only to the leadership, academics and bureaucrats," he said.

"The key information we want to tell people is what we will get from this new integration of economies in the region. We can call it the new information Silk Road."

Kang Bing, deputy editor-in-chief of China Daily, agreed it was important that the media should build the information Silk Road.

"It is an obligation that we media people cannot avoid.

"We need to build a platform for dialogue between media think tanks and open new channels for international communication for the upcoming China ASEAN Expo." The two made their remarks at the Focus on China ASEAN Expo: Asia Media Forum, one of a series of activities connected with the expo, which begins on Friday.

The forum brings experts, officials and ANN media practitioners together to analyze recent developments in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Its aim is to raise awareness of Asia as "a community of shared destiny" among member countries.

Representatives from 17 Asian media organizations and the State's publicity department, as well as officials from Guangxi, took part in Thursday's forum.

Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of the Daily Star, Bangladesh, said as journalists "we rejoice at the declaration of the initiative and we will also closely follow the implementation of the plan.

"When the implementation is not fast enough or good enough, we can write critically about this. Not because we don't want it to be successful, but we want it to be very successful."

This is the 12th time Nanning has hosted the China ASEAN Expo, which will end on Monday. 2015 marks the China-ASEAN Maritime Cooperation Year, so the expo will feature the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road as its theme.

Contact the writer at wanghuazhong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/18/2015 page4)