The signing ceremony of Nanjing Tech University - University ofZaragoza Joint Confucius Institute was held inConfucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) in Beijing on July 5, which paved the way for the establishment of NanjingTech's second Confucius Institute, the first being the Nanjing Tech University -University of Johannesburg Joint CI established in July, 2014.
Madame XU Lin, Hanban Director-General and Confucius Institute Headquarters Chief Executive, signed theAgreement between Confucius Institute Headquarters of China andUniversity ofZaragozaof Spain on the Establishment of Confucius Institute at University ofZaragozawith UZ President, Prof. Jose Antonio Mayoral Murillo.
Before the ceremony, Madame Xu met with the delegations of both NanjingTech and UZ and spoke highly of the efforts of both universities in facilitating the establishment of Confucius Institute.
President Jose Antonio Mayoral Murillo said thatZaragoza is the capital of Aragon and one"the Belt and Road" city, which can play an important role in promoting cultural exchanges. The University ofZaragoza is a public university with a history of 500 years and the leading member of the G9Universidades, a university alliance ofZaragoza and its neighboring cities.Nanjing Tech University has made leaping development in research, education and globalization since it was officially selected into the "2011 Plan". University ofZaragoza is honored to co-establish Confucius Institute with NanjingTech, which has received much attention and support from local government and media. UZ will endeavor to build the Confucius Institute into a center of Chinese language and culture.
President Huang Wei expressed his gratitude to the support of Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) all along. He said that under the four guiding strategies of "Talent Cultivation, Synergetic Innovation, Cultural Orientation and Global Engagement", NanjingTech is striding forward on its new journey of building "world-class discipline" and "world-class university". Confucius Institute is the platform to demonstrate Chinese image and culture and the bridge to span the gap between different civilizations. Confucius Institute is the important pivot of NanjingTech's cultural orientation and global engagement strategies. NanjingTech and UZ have similar research strength in fields like chemistry and materials and, therefore, have considerable opportunities of collaboration. The cooperation between two universities will yield fruitful results which will contribute to the promotion of Chinese language and culture.
