On January 9, the closing ceremony of the “2018 China-CEEC Local Cooperation Year” and the opening ceremony the 2019 China-CEEC Education and Youth Exchange Year were held at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse. The Vice Minister of Education Zhu Zhiwen attended the ceremonies and delivered a speech.

Zhu noted the encouraging progress made in cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries in the field of education in recent years, including an increasing number of inbound CEE students to China and outbound Chinese students to CEE countries, fruitful results born of joint language teaching programs, stronger partnerships between Chinese and CEE universities and the exciting prospect of further cooperation in on-campus sports. He said that the MOE would organize a range of events in 2019 to promote educational cooperation and youth exchange between China and CEE countries.

The ceremonies were also attended by Wang Chao, China’s Vice Foreign Minister and Director of the Secretariat for Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries, Chen Luping, Deputy Governor of Liaoning Province, envoys of 16 CEE countries to China and representatives of universities and local-level foreign affairs offices.