On 9th March the work meeting of the Confucius Institute at theUniversity of Zagreb established in partnership with the ShanghaiUniversity of International Business and Economics was held at theEmbassy of China to Croatia. Ambassador Deng Ying, First SecretaryShen Yilin, Qu Huibin and the Chinese faculty and staff at the CIattended the meeting.
Yan Lidong, Chinese dean of the CI gave an overview of the work ofthe CI in terms of its achievements, future plans and existingproblems. Ambassador Deng commented on the work of the CI and gaveinstructions regarding its future development. She highlighted thelong-standing and friendly government-to-government andpeople-to-people ties between China and Croatia since theestablishment of the diplomatic relations and emphasized theimportant role of Confucius Institutes as a platform for culturaldiplomacy and public diplomacy in promoting the Chinese language,Chinese culture and business exchanges between China and othercountries.
Ambassador Deng provided guidance and advice for the futuredevelopment of the CI, including that the CI should establishprograms of its own characteristics while maintaining itsadvantages in traditional programs, take a proactive approach toexpanding its autonomy in and channels to running the CI by keepingextensive contacts with the local government, culture and educationauthorities and business community, be actively engaged inpragmatic cooperation and mutual exchanges by integrating theresources in both countries, and encourage and motivate the localstudents to learn Chinese and create favorable conditions for themto study in China, seek jobs and develop in their career. She alsoexpressed the hope that the Chinese Embassy to Croatia and the CIwould work more closely and work harder to bring the China-Croatiacultural and people-to-people exchanges to a new level.