Representatives of Six Confucius Institutes Attended the Joint Conference, and Described the Blueprint of Future

North Campus, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, December 22^th, 2019: On the afternoon of December 13^th, the joint conference of Confucius Institutes was held at the International Conference Hall of the Administration Building. Representatives of the Confucius Institutes at Sapporo University,Japan; Ural Federal University,Russia; the Catholic University of Santa Maria,Peru; the University of Cape Verde; Ainshams University, Egypt; and the University of Porto,Portugal, gathered, reviewed their development footprint and looked into the blueprint of the future. SUI Guangjun, Party Secretary of GDUFS and SHI Youqi, President of GDUFS, attended the event. Chinese directors of Confucius Institutes, representatives of the leadership of foreign institutions, as well as representatives of some functional departments of GDUFS, including Organization, the Office of Personnel and the Confucius Institute Office, were also present.

The celebration

SUI mentioned that, now that international communication is getting closer and closer, Chinese language and culture are more and more popular. Confucius Institutes, with their unique advantages, plays an important role in promoting cultural diversity. He expressed his sincere gratitude to the presidents, teachers, volunteers and workers, for their great work for Confucius Institutes. He also hoped that all the attendees could speak out freely, exchange experience, pool wisdom, and explore cooperation, in order to help Confucius Institutes drive more robust development.

Judit Nascimento, President of University of Cape Verde;Vladimir Kluyezaf, Vice President of Ural Federal University in Russia;Joao Velozo, Vice president of University of Porto in Portugaland Foreign Dean of the Confucius Institute;and Gilica Cavalvedia, Foreign Dean of Confucius Institute at Catholic University of Santa Maria, Peru, delivered speeches. They expressed heartfelt thanks to GDUFS’s support inconstructing Confucius Institutes. All of them also admired GDUFS’s deans, teachers and volunteers for their hard work, looking forward to further cooperation and exchanges.

With children’s wonderful voices in the choir of Affiliated Primary School, the 10^th anniversary celebration of the Confucius Institute at the Catholic University of Santa Maria, Peru, was organized at the meeting.

The signing ceremony of cooperation agreement

Besides, GDUFS and University of Cape Verde renewed the cooperation contract during the meeting, in order to promote academic exchanges between the two sides and the development of Chinese language teaching, then to lay the foundation of the development of Confucius Institutes. Six Chinese deans of Confucius Institutes reported separately. All of them agreed that they would strengthen planning and management of Confucius institutes, aiming make plentiful achievements with the efforts of all sides.

The group photo

From December7^th to 13^th, the five Confucius Institutes at Sapporo University, Japan; Ural Federal University, Russia; the Catholic University of Santa Maria, Peru; University of Cape Verde;and University of Porto, Portugal, held a council at GDUFS. They discussed some details about council motions, annual work summaries and plans, the change of directors, and the next council. Also, they deliberated and passed the budgets.

From December 9^thto 10^th, JIAO Fangtai, Vice President of GDUFS, led a delegation to Changsha to participate in the International Conference on Chinese Language Education, 2019. At the conference, the Confucius Institute at Ural Federal University, Russia, was awarded the title of “Advanced ConfuciusInstitute”.

Winning the title

On the morning of December 12^th, GDUFS held the first joint conference of Chinese directors of Confucius Institutes. At the conference, KE Xiaohua, Director of Confucius Institute Office, and Chinese directors of the six Confucius Institutes had a full discussion and communication on the system construction of Confucius Institutes. KE also made demands on each Confucius Institute’ s work in 2020.

The conference