By Bao Jie from People's Daily

China-Australia ties will be further intensified as their media cooperation increases following the signing of a series of agreements in Sydney on Friday.

Senior officials from both sides, including Liu Qibao, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and Gary Quinlan, Deputy Secretary of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia, witnessed the inking ceremony of the agreements.

On behalf on their respective part, Yu Qingchu, Editor-in-Chief of People's Daily Online and Angelos Frangopoulos, CEO of Australian News Channel Pty Ltd, inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation in information sharing and video programs.

A quartet MoU was also signed by People's Daily Online, Australian News Channel Pty Ltd, Qingdao Publishing Group, and Australia-based media company Weldon International. The four corps will launch a high-end talk show on the Chinese economy.

Frangopoulos, hailing business and trade as part of a strong and fundamental relationship between Australia and China, told the People’s Daily that he believed that media cooperation between both countries is very positive to the relationship.

“Australian and Chinese media share a very positive relationship. We think the more we work together, the better the relationship between our two countries,” he added.

Vice Editor-in-Chief Zhou Zongmin of the Xinhua News Agency also sealed a MoU enabling greater information exchange with Bob Carr, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute affiliated to the Sydney-based University of Technology.

Other agreements also included one between China Daily and Fairfax Media Limited, as well as the one between China Radio International and Melbourne-based Global CAMG Media Group.

Qingdao Publishing Group also reached a publishing agreement with Weldon International over the Arabic version of China: The New Long March, a book that portrays the country today through the eyes of a celebrated team of Chinese and international photographers after they revisited the original route of the Long March.

"The War That Changed the World: The Making of a New China", a documentary exhibiting the true horrors of the Second World War co-produced by China and Australia also held its premiere on the same day.

The documentary, created by China Central Television's (CCTV) and Australia's WildBear Entertainment, is also the first documentary on WW2 made by the two countries.