KUNMING -- The 2025 Global South Media and Think Tank Forum opened Saturday in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province.

The event has gathered around 500 participants from more than 260 media outlets, think tanks, government agencies and international organizations across 110 countries and regions.

The Global Governance Initiative, recently proposed by China, provides important guidance for the Global South to jointly reform the global governance system, said Hu Heping, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, when addressing the opening ceremony.

Hu expressed optimism that the forum would enhance communication and exchanges among media and think tanks, helping Global South countries strengthen cooperation amid global transformations and jointly build a better future.

Fu Hua, president of Xinhua News Agency, said in his address that as China's national news agency and a global news organization, Xinhua stands ready to work with all parties to tell the stories of how Global South leaders guide and promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity.

He stressed the importance of enhancing research and dissemination of important ideas, and leveraging multilateral exchange mechanisms, to tap into the full potential of discourse, and mobilize driving forces for the development and prosperity of the Global South.

Media and think tanks of the Global South should explore cooperative potential in areas such as strengthening information sharing, promoting personnel exchanges, and telling the stories of the Global South effectively, said Khamphan Pheuyavong, member of the Secretariat of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee, head of the Propaganda and Training Commission of the LPRP Central Committee, and president of the Theory Council of the LPRP Central Committee, at the opening ceremony.

In a video address to the opening ceremony, Melissa Fleming, the United Nations under-secretary-general for global communications, called for joint efforts to enhance global sustainability and intercultural exchanges, restore balance to the global information ecosystem, and incorporate integrity into the online public sphere.

The forum, running through next Tuesday, is co-hosted by Xinhua News Agency, the CPC Yunnan Provincial Committee and the People's Government of Yunnan Province.