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October 2013
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On October 23, at a ceremony filled with stirring performances at the Daaga Auditorium on the St Augustine campus, the Confucius Institute was formally launched in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Winston Dookeran; Chinese Ambassador, His Excellency Huang Xingyuan; UWI Chancellor, Sir George Alleyne; Campus Principal and Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Clement Sankat, Campus Council Chair, Mr Ewart Williams and President of the China Agricultural University, Professor KE Bingsheng. Guests were welcomed by Professor Sankat, who said that through the CI, The UWI will strengthen its relations with China. “This will be done by making available the teaching of Chinese to corporate and private citizens; deepening our understanding of Chinese culture in general and more specifically Chinese culture in business. Additionally, research will be conducted on contemporary China in areas such as science and technology, trade and the economy, the arts, international relations and global higher education,” he said.
“It is my strong belief that the establishment of the CI will not only provide a good platform for facilitating mutual exchanges and understanding in the field of languages and cultures, and thus play a big role in promoting economic cooperation and people’s friendship between our two countries, but also offer good opportunities to explore potentials for educational and research collaboration between the two universities,” he said. China Agricultural University is one of China’s key research universities, and accredited as one of the “elite universities” for a special support programme in China. Guests were also addressed by Ambassador Huang Xingyuan and Minister Dookeran before the ceremonial unveiling of a plaque of commemoration. There were performances by the Chinese Arts and Culture Studies Society, the Chinese Steel Ensemble of Trinidad and Tobago, Ms Anya Reyes, and students from the Centre for Language Learning, before the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, Professor Funso Aiyejina, brought the ceremony to a close. |
At the beginning of June, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Trinidad and Tobago’s Parliament for the establishment of a Confucius Institute (CI) at the St Augustine campus of The UWI. This had been one of the outcomes of the State visit by President Xi Jinping, of the People’s Republic of China in 2010 when a three-year MOA had been signed between the campus and the CI where the Government of China provided a lecturer in the Mandarin language and Chinese culture to The UWI Centre for Language Learning from January 2011.
Professor Bingsheng, whose university (CAU) will partner with The UWI on this initiative, said that although there are already more than 300 CIs in over 100 countries in the world, the one being launched was one of the “most important results” of the Chinese President’s visit.