Branch offices of China's official Xinhua News Agency in Hong Kong and Macao will be renamed from January 18, a Xinhua spokesman said in Beijing January 17.

The Chinese government has decided that beginning January 18, 2000, the former branches of Xinhua News Agency in Hong Kong and Macao will be called the Liaison Offices of the Central People's Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), respectively, with regard to the fact that both Hong Kong and Macao have returned to China.

The departments in the former two local branches engaged in reporting and editing news, called "News Departments", will continue their journalistic operations under the new names of the Hong Kong SAR Bureau and Macao SAR Bureau of Xinhua News Agency.

The two Xinhua bureaus have registered with local governments.

Xinhua is owned by the Chinese government and is one of the most influential wire service in the world. With a history dated back to 1931, Xinhua has domestic bureaus in all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and has opened more than 100 overseas regional bureaus and bureaus across the globe.

Xinhua releases news stories and photos to both domestic and overseas customers twenty four hours a day in seven languages -- Chinese, English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Portuguese .Xinhua also publishes and distributes 40 newspapers and periodicals.

Xinhua branches in Hong Kong and Macao have engaged in news reporting activities for many years and have developed good relations with local people from all walks of life, especially the local media.

The Hong Kong SAR Bureau and Macao SAR Bureau will make further contribution to the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong and Macao. Both bureaus will continue to promote and develop exchanges and cooperation between the two regions and the mainland as well as the other parts of the world.

Guo Chaoren, president of Xinhua News Agency, has appointed Zhang Guoliang as director of the Hong Kong SAR Bureau, and Chen Boliang as director of the Macao SAR Bureau, the spokesman said.

Both Zhang and Chen are highly experienced senior journalists of Xinhua. Zhang has assumed the posts of director of the Reference News Department of Xinhua, secretary-general of Xinhua, and editor-in-chief of Xinhua's Hong Kong Bureau over the years. Chen has served as director of the Foreign Affairs Bureau of Xinhua and head of the Xinhua's News Department in Macao. (Xinhua)