BEIJING -- A cross-Strait media summit was held in Beijing on Thursday, drawing nearly 150 media chiefs, scholars and representatives from mainland and Taiwan.

Media serve as a vital bridge to share information, deepen mutual understanding, and strengthen kinship across the Taiwan Strait, said Fu Hua, president of Xinhua News Agency, at the summit, the sixth of its kind.

Fu urged media practitioners from the two sides to jointly enhance people-to-people connectivity, uphold cultural confidence to preserve the shared heritage, and embrace the glorious responsibility of national rejuvenation.

He also expressed the hope that media professionals across the Strait will continue contributing to the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations.

Media outlets on both sides of the Strait should play a bigger role in bringing cross-Strait relations back to the right track, foster closer bonds of heart and mind, and navigate technological shifts in the media landscape together, said Wu Xi, deputy head of both the Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, at the summit.

The representatives from Taiwan, including Chou Hsi-wei, vice chairman of Taiwan-based Want Want China, and Gary Wang, president of Eastern Group, stressed the need for enhancing exchange and cooperation and steering through challenges to a bright future.

Co-hosted by Xinhuanet and Beijing Daily, the summit launched an incubation program for young media professionals across the Strait and released a joint initiative for media cooperation in the next decade.