Senior Prof. Nilanthi De Silva, Vice Chancellor, University of Kelaniya, Dr. Jani Samarakoon, Co-Director of the Confucius Institute of the University of Kelaniya, and the lecturers of the Confucius Institute represented Sri Lanka at the International Chinese Education Conference. The International Chinese Education Conference was held in Beijing on the 8th of December 2022. Vice Premier of the State Council, Sun Chunlan, attended the meeting and delivered a keynote speech.
Sun Chunlan pointed out that with the deepening development of globalization, the demand for learning Chinese in various countries remains strong. More than 180 countries in the world implement Chinese teaching and 81 countries have included Chinese in the national education system. Chinese courses are offered in various schools and there are more than 80,000 training institutes, and more than 30 million people are learning Chinese. Thanks to the joint efforts of all parties at home and abroad, international Chinese education has been developed, thereby cultural exchange between China and foreign countries. , she added, demonstrates the important role of language in the mutual learning of civilizations and the bonds between people.
The opening ceremony was presided over by Minister of Education Mr. Huai Jinpeng who gave a welcome speech. Mr. Huai Jinpeng extended a warm welcome to all the guests who attended today's meeting and expressed his heartfelt thanks to scholars from all walks of life who have cared about and supported the development of international Chinese education for a long time. He further mentioned that cooperation, the contribution of Chinese education to world education, and the building of a global education partnership, international Chinese education is an important part of international exchanges and cooperation in education. Here, educators and participants from all over the world were given the opportunity to present their ideas and suggestions directly through this conference.
At the opening ceremony, former Chilean President Eduardo Frei, UAE Minister of Education Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, UNESCO Deputy Director-General Qu Xing, the United States St. Robbyn Wacker, President of Crowder State University, Robinson Jean Louis, Madagascar Ambassador to China, Gong Qihuang, President of Peking University, William N. Brown, a foreign professor of Xiamen University and Daniel Rakewitsch, a student representative from Germany, delivered speeches successively and played congratulatory messages from educational partners around the world.
The opening ceremony showcased new international Chinese language education projects, new brands, and the results of featured projects. The guests presented awards to the global champions of the 2022 "Chinese Bridge" World Chinese Competition and launched the 2022 International Chinese Education Conference and Exchange Week and the "Chinese Bridge" Bridge" winter camp activities.
With the theme of "Building a new pattern of high-quality development of international Chinese education", this conference and exchange week adopted a combination of online and offline methods to hold 11 parallel forums and more than 30 exchange activities, with participants from more than 90 countries and regions Nearly 1,800 representatives from relevant government departments, schools, enterprises, and Chinese education institutions attended the conference.
