The Symposium on Confucius Institute and the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative held

On Dec. 11th, when the 11th Confucius Institute Conference was convened in Kunming, the Symposium on Confucius Institute and the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative was held, during which leading officials from the Ministry of Education of China and six provinces (autonomous regions) including Yunnan, Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, Gansu and Ningxia, heads of departments of education of some provinces (autonomous regions), and presidents of Chinese partner institutions conducted in-depth discussions on how to provide strong support to the work of the Confucius Institute so as to better serve the development of the “Belt and Road” Initiative.

The Symposium on Confucius Institute and the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative held

At the symposium, Zhao Jin, Member of the Standing Committee of and Director of the Publicity Department of Yunnan Provincial Party Committee; Liu Qunying, Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of Fujian Provincial People's Congress; Gao Feng, Vice Chairman of the People’s Political Consultative Conference of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region; Chen Mingming, Vice Governor of Guizhou Province; Hao Yuan, Vice Governor of Gansu Province; Yao Aixing, Vice Governor of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region; Zhu Chongshi, President of Xiamen University; as well as Peng Long, President of Beijing Foreign Studies University, addressed the event and shared their opinions with other delegates. The delegates all agreed that while promoting greater acceptance and popularity of the Chinese language and culture around the world, the Confucius Institute has always been playing a pivotal role in facilitating their provinces and universities to develop all-round cooperation with countries along the “Belt and Road” in various fields, including cultural and people-to-people exchanges, sister school ties, sister province-state relations, as well as business and trade partnerships. They also promised to provide strong support to the future work of the Confucius Institute as always.

Vice Minister of Education Hao Ping addressing the symposium

In his concluding speech at the symposium, Vice Minister of Education Hao Ping pointed out that the Confucius Institute had taken root in the host country and offered Chinese language teaching and cultural exchange events of flexible and diverse forms in accordance with local conditions, thus making significant contributions to consolidating and strengthening the public opinion foundation with countries along the “Belt and Road”. Mr. Hao further stated that the “Belt and Road” Initiative serves as the top-level design for the international cooperation and exchange of Chinese education and a vital guideline for driving work in this aspect to a higher level and a greater scale. In the future, the Confucius Institute, while adhering to the overall requirements for the development of the “Belt and Road”, would further improve its layout, step up the development of teaching staff and teaching materials, and make vigorous efforts to cultivate local bilingual translators, research-oriented talents, and professionals with vocational skills. Educational authorities of all local governments should increase their input and integrate competitive resources so as to usher a new dimension in offering all-round support to the development of the “Belt and Road”. He urged all Chinese partner institutions to take effective measures to strengthen their capability in offering support and work continuously to deepen the Sino-foreign cooperation. Confucius Institutes in various countries should uphold a sense of “service in advance”, and actively participate in and serve the development of the “Belt and Road”.

At this year’s Confucius Institute Conference, the “Confucius Institute and the ‘Belt and Road’ Initiative Roundtable Forum” was also held, at which 14 presidents of universities hosting Confucius Institutes from countries along the “Belt and Road” delivered their speeches, including Anatoli Tozik, Former Vice Prime Minister of Belarus; Pasquale Mammone, President of University of Artois, France; Atef Mohamed Mohamed Aly, Deputy Rector of Suez Canal University. All the foreign delegates agreed that along with the advancing of the development of the “Belt and Road”, the Confucius Institute would enjoy a promising future with broad prospects in providing language and vocational skill training to local employees of Chinese enterprises in countries along the route and, in particular, serving as a think tank to offer information and policy consultation services for cooperation in various fields, such as cultural exchanges and business ties between China and these countries.

According to statistics, 134 Confucius Institutes and 127 Confucius Classrooms have been established in 51 countries along the “Belt and Road”. In 2016, these Confucius Institutes and Classrooms, enjoying enormous popularity among people in these countries, enrolled a total of 460,000 students and held around 8,000 cultural events of various types, receiving 2.7 million participants.