A Reuters delegation led by Chief Executive Officer Tom Glocer on Thursday visited Xinhua News Agency to mark five decades of cooperation between the two news agencies.

In a meeting with the Reuters delegation, Xinhua President Tian Congming gave a presentation on Xinhua's planned development.

Tian said Xinhua was actively developing the Internet, SMS, MMS, audio-visual programs and other multimedia coverage as well as economic information reports and seeking more clients and subscribers.

Xinhua had gradually built up a communication system of news and information gathering, editing, releasing and transmitting covering all parts of China and major regions of the world, he said.

He said Xinhua had gradually perfected management systems and mechanisms conducive to raising work efficiency.

Tian pledged that Xinhua would enhance cooperation and exchanges with news agencies and other media of foreign countries.

Glocer expressed appreciation of Xinhua's good preparations for a series of celebrations marking 50 years of Reuters-Xinhua cooperation.

Impressed by Xinhua's progress, Glocer said Reuters would like to continue its partnership with Xinhua.

Glocer also briefed Xinhua management on Reuters' business scope and personnel after the recent merger of Reuters and Thomson Corp..

Later on Thursday, the two news agencies will hold a series of celebrations, including a photo exhibition and a banquet in Beijing's Great Hall of the People, to mark the anniversary.

Reuters was the first Western news agency to forge cooperation with Xinhua.

Founded in 1931, Xinhua News Agency is the most authoritative news agency in China and an international provider of multimedia news and information services. Based in Beijing, Xinhua runs 33 domestic bureaus and 102 overseas bureaus.

Xinhua provides round-the-clock news and information services in the formats of text, photo, graphics, audio and video, as well as a website, for more than 60,000 media and non-media subscribers in nearly 200 countries and regions in eight languages: Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Portuguese and Japanese.

Founded in London in 1851 by Paul Julius Reuter, Reuters has grown as the world's largest international multimedia news agency with 2,400 editorial staff, journalists, photographers and camera operators in 196 bureaus serving approximately 131 countries. Accounting for five percent of the total business of Reuters Group, Reuters is the world's largest financial information provider with around 370,000 professional users.

Source: Xinhua