On June 16th, 2015 AU Youth Officials Cultural Seminar, sponsored by International Exchange Bureau of Ministry of Culture and organized by TUTE, kicked off on TUTE campus. Mr. Song Yanqun, Director of African Affairs Office of the Bureau; TUTE’s V.P. Prof. Yan Bing as well as 11 young officials from AU headquarters participated in the opening ceremony.
Prof. Yan, on behalf of the University, delivered a speech, saying that the Seminar should be a platform where youth of the two countries could communicate and exchange views, which would lead to further cooperation between TUTE and AU.
Mr. Song with Ministry of Culture commented that cultural exchange was pivotal to the new Sino-African strategic partnership. The seminar, an event of Sino-African cultural exchange and interaction on a deeper level, hopefully would turn out to be an opportunity for the AU officials to gain a profound understanding of Chinese culture and be conducive to further collaboration and exchange.
On behalf of the 11 AU officials, Diana Diallo expressed her gratitude to International Exchange Bureau and TUTE for hosting and organizing the seminar. She said that the relationship between Africa and China had always been close ever since the Second World War and now it was evolving into a new strategic partnership. Against this historical context, the seminar would be meaningful on two levels. On the one hand, it gave them an opportunity to really understand Chinese culture. On the other hand, afterwards they would share what they had seen and heard with people back in Africa, acting as volunteers with a strong commitment to Sino-African Cultural exchange.
This was the second time TUTE had organized the seminar of this kind. The officials were from various departments of AU, including Technology Department, Agriculture Department and Culture Department etc. And over the 14-day period, they would learn Chinese culture and study Chinese society through lectures, field studies and group discussions.
