(Kamuzu College of Nursing, 24 September 2016)

 

Hon. Emmanuel Fabiano, Minister of Education, Science and Technology, and the Guest of Honor,

Your Worship Willie Chapondera, Mayor of Lilongwe City,

Faculty members and Students,

Friends from the media,

Distinguished friends,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

    Good morning!

    It is my great pleasure to participate in and speak at this function to celebrate the first Confucius Institute Day in Malawi.  On behalf of the Chinese Embassy in Malawi, I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to the Confucius Institute of the University of Malawi and sincere gratitude to the Chinese teachers, volunteers and our Malawian friends for their critical contributions to the establishment and functioning of the Institute.

    China is a country with time-honored civilization, which has an uninterrupted history of more than 5,000 years. Confucius is one of the greatest philosopher and educator in our history and played a very important role in the formation of the Chinese ancient civilization. With the nurture and influence by the Confucius Philosophy, loyalty, filial piety, propriety, righteousness and benevolence have been our nation's core values passed from generation to generation.

    Ladies and Gentlemen,

    Named after Confucius and firstly established in September 2004, the Confucius Institutes now have amounted to more than 500 across the world and become a platform for the promotion of Chinese language and culture, a window for the people all over the world to get to know China, a showground for intercultural exchanges as well as a positive force for building a harmonious world.

    Obviously, compared with other Confucius Institutes, the Confucius Institute of the University of Malawi is one of the youngest. Nevertheless, a good beginning is half done. Though just several months old, this Institute is doing very well. As a seeding machine of harmony and friendship, Prof. Feng and his team have offered Chinese lessons to more than 1,000 students across the country. Chinese greetings such as "你好" "谢谢" can be heard almost everywhere,especiaaly in Lilongwe.

    Ladies and gentlemen,

    The mutual beneficial cooperation and friendly exchanges between our two countries have tremendous potential in the fields of trade, investment, tourism, culture and education,which provide the students who learn the Chinese with much better career opportunities. More importantly, language is also the window to understand a people and a nation,the bridge to communicate and make friends with each other. Mastering the Chinese Language is bound to promote your understanding of Chinese traditional culture and the development paths of China today. I hope you can also go beyond to act as the ambassadors of China-Malawi friendship, and push forward our cooperation and friendship to the new high.