The 12thConfucius Institute Conference was held in Xi’an on December 12. Liu Yuandong, Vice Premier of the State Council and Chairwoman of the Council of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, attended and addressed the conference. Under the theme of “Deepening Cooperation, Developing through Innovation, and Working Together to Build a Community of Shared Future for Mankind”, the conference was attended by nearly 2500 delegates including university presidents and representatives of Confucius Institutes from 140 countries and regions. On CSU’s behalf, Vice President Zhou Kechao attended the conference.
At the conference, Vice Premier Liu Yandong delivered a keynote speech and presented plaques to new Confucius Institutes, including the Union Confucius Institute by CSU and Congo (Kinshasa) Institute of Diplomacy. Professor Dede Birhonga Ndemba, President of Congo (Kinshasa) Institute of Diplomacy, participated in the ceremony.
On December 15, at CSU’s invitation, a delegation led by President Dede Birhonga Ndemba visited CSU and met with Vice President Zhou Kechao. Both sides agreed to make joint efforts in building the Confucius Institute, so as to promote cultural and academic exchanges and enhance people-to-people friendship between both countries. The delegation also visited CSU’s new campus and Xiangya Hospital, and took part in an academic exchange event hosted by the French Department of the School of Foreign Languages.
Since the founding of the first Confucius Institute 13 years ago, 525 Confucius Institutes and 1,113 Confucius Classrooms have been set up in 146 countries and regions around the world, with a total of 9.16 million enrolled students of various types. Over the past five years in particular, through the joint efforts of Chinese and foreign parties, Confucius Institutes have made positive contributions to enhancing the friendship between Chinese people and other peoples in the world and to promoting communication and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. Looking forward, Confucius Institute, which serves as bond for language exchanges and platform for mutual learning, will strive to be a bridge for enhancing friendship and propeller for win-win cooperation; the institute operation will be improved with optimized layout and the native faculty with deepened reform on teachers, teaching materials and teaching methods, to better meet the local demand of various countries. What’s more, by improvement of the institutional mechanisms and joint efforts of China and foreign countries, Confucius Institutes will become a brand of cultural and educational exchanges which features inclusiveness, sharing, harmony and coexistence, thus making greater contributions to the building of a community of shared future for mankind.
