Reuters is set to enhance its cooperation with Chinese media as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games draws closer.

The global information company and Xinhua, China's official news agency, are undertaking a two-week Olympic training workshop.

From Tuesday, 30 reporters and editors from Xinhua begin an intensive training program in Beijing on covering the Games with guidance from Reuters' veteran sports journalists.

"We have a long history of cooperation in China, working with Chinese companies and government to accelerate the growth of the financial market. In addition, we have a long history of cooperation with Xinhua. The year of 2007 is the 50th anniversary of our cooperation and it is appropriate to celebrating the anniversary by helping them prepare as the host news agency for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games," Alexander Hungate, managing director of Reuters Asia, told China Daily.

"(The Olympic Games) is the great opportunity for China to open up to the world, and it's a milestone in the process of what China is going through. It is a highly symbolic opportunity to work with Xinhua.

"We hope it will help underline our support for China's growth, and therefore also contribute to our recognition as supporting China's financial market as well."

Seasoned sports reporters Steve Parry and Brian Williams are running the program for Xinhua.

Parry has spent 34 years with Reuters and covered 19 Summer and Winter Olympics. Williams has been with the wire agency for 37 years and covered seven Olympics in total; he also served as the editor-in-chief for the Sydney and Athens Games.

The workshop involves discussion and writing exercises on a wide range of topics, such as gearing up for the Games, Olympics-related background information and Xinhua's role as the host news agency next year. The group will also do some case studies on Olympic reporting and learn to construct news features around soft topics.

The program will provide a half-day session on covering the Olympic Games for about 200 sports reporters from other Chinese media as well.

"Based on the feedback from the last three days, there is a strong demand for another session," Hungate said.

"I find Chinese journalists are looking for more training from companies like Reuters, and maybe we can work with BOCOG to provide such a kind of program to them.

"In any industry, the human capital infrastructure is the most important thing," he added.

Through the Reuters Foundation, the company also works with the School of Journalism at Beijing's Tsinghua University to provide courses on sports and financial journalism. "We are very delighted to have a strong relationship with China's media industry and we want to continue to build on that," said Hungate.