Confucius Centre to be established at AIOU

Islamabad

Minister of State for Education and Professional Training Baligur Rehman has said that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) not only has enormous socio-economic benefit for Pakistan but will ensure promising future for the entire region.

“As the result of this flagship project, the Sino-Pak relations are reaching new heights,” he was addressing the signing ceremony here on Tuesday to establish China’s Confucius Centre at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) to teach and popularise Chinese language in Pakistan.

The document was inked by the AIOU Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Shahid Sidiqui and President of Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication (BIGC) Xueke Luo. The Institute showed its willingness to provide necessary funding, teaching facility and study material for the purpose.

The minister said with $38 billion investment in energy sector, China is playing a big role in overcoming load-shedding problem in the country, he added. He said that the strong resolve and commitment of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have paved the way for the CPEC’s success that is a pilot and major chapter of One Road, One Belt initiative.

About the Confucius Centre, he said, the AIOU has potential and strength to make it effective one, due to it access to every nook and corner of the country. The government, he said is proud of AIOU, as it was successfully providing flexible and affordable education to the people through distance learning system. He appreciated the University’s move making Chinese language teaching arrangement at Gwadar as well.

Minister of State for Education and Professional training lauded the initiative of the two institutions, setting up the Centre to meet the growing demand of Chinese language in Pakistan, following the successful operation of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Dr. Shahid Siddiqui VC AIOU said this is an educational response to CPEC that is a game-changer project for the economic prosperity of the country in his welcome remarks. He announced that a branch of Confucius Centre will also be opened at Gwadar to provide linguistic support to Pakistani manpower that is engaged in the gigantic project.

The Chinese delegation that participated in the ceremony included BIGC’s Prof. Sheru Zhang, Executive official Zhou Yan and Dr. Sajjad Khurshid, a Beijing-based focal person for the project.

Dr. Shahid Siddiqui briefed the Chinese delegation about the university’s working, achievements, and new initiatives, assuring that they would also fulfil the responsibility of promoting Sino-Pak common interest in the field of education.

BIGC President Prof. Lueke said, Pakistan is the first country in the region, where they were opening Confucius Centre. The BIGC is working as a University for the last about 60 years, focusing on multimedia education, and now they have been tasked by the government to promote the language and culture abroad.