Honorable Mr. Semere Russom, Minister of Education

Respected Madam Shen Liping, Deputy Party Secretary of Guizhou University of Finance and Economics,

Dear students and parents,

Dear friends from all walks of life in Eritrea,

Dear teachers from Confucius Institute and Chinese enterprises,

 

Good afternoon! Welcome to the new Chinese Embassy. We are pleased to hold today's Chinese competition and look forward to the great performances of all the participants. Let me take this opportunity to extend my thanks to the Confucius Institute for their professional teaching and organizing this activity.

 

This is my second time to join such a Chinese competition event, for which I have a special preference because it offers a chance for me to directly interact with Eritrean young students and I can hear their fresh thoughts and ideas, especially their understanding of China and the Chinese culture.

 

Culture is where a country and its people's spiritual sources and souls lie. Trans-cultural exchanges play an irreplaceable role in strengthening state-to-state bilateral relations, enhancing friendship between different countries and peoples and fostering connectivity for peoples' hearts. Over the past years China and Eritrea have conducted frequent people-to-people exchanges and cultural cooperation. This has subsequently made positive contribution to our bilateral ties as well as the friendship between the two peoples.

 

Last year, I visited an elementary school in Asmara and talked to the pupils in their classroom. Through our dialogues, it became apparent to me that they have profound interests in China and Chinese culture because they raised so many questions about China's history and culture to me, and some of them tried their best to greet me in Chinese, which was of course not so fluent or standardized in pronunciation and intonation, like "你好,早上好,谢谢" and so on. But I understood them well and I felt they were so close to me when they spoke Chinese. Yes, different languages should not become obstacles for our communication, and learning each other's language and culture constitutes a "golden key" to effective communication. It can greatly shorten our distances and let us feel each other's hearts.

 

But a contest is a contest, it is about selecting the winners through fierce competition, and the winners of this contest will have the opportunity to represent Eritrea to participate in the final Chinese contest in China this October. But for me there are no losers among you, you are all winners. This is because you not only work hard to learn Chinese, show your confidence and courage on this stage, but more importantly because each of you is an emissary for China-Eritrea relations, and you will serve as a bridge of friendship and mutual understanding between our peoples. You are all ambassadors among the general public.

 

Dear students and friends,

 

This year marks the 25^th anniversary of China-Eritrea diplomatic relations, and our cooperation in various fields including culture and education ushers in important opportunities. This September, China will hold the Beijing Summit of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). This Summit will outline new China-Africa cooperation plans. I'm sure that promoting educational and cultural exchanges will be an important part of those plans.

 

Dear students and friends,

 

Chinese civilization has a 5000-year uninterrupted history. Eritrea also has a long history of ethnic, cultural and religious developments. China is ready to stick to principles of inclusiveness, openness and mutual learning to invigorate its bilateral ties with Eritrea in language and cultural aspects, in order to make our joint contribution to the progress of human civilization and the building of a shared future of common destiny for the mankind.

 

To conclude my remarks, let me extend my best wishes again to all the participants for good performances, and also for success in the following-up competitions in China.

 

Thank you all. Yekenyeley!