Zhao Lingshan - the Secretary General of The China International Chinese Education Foundation Has Met with The Delegation of Rectors and Directors from Bulgaria

On 11th April 2024, a delegation of eighteen Bulgarian rectors and directors led by Prof. Georgi Valchev, PhD - Rector of the St. Clement Ohridsky University of Sofia, have visited the Foundation.
Prof. Georgi Valchev has explained the basic situation of the Sofia University and the situation of the Chinese language teaching in the secondary schools represented by their headmasters in the delegation. Prof. Valchev has expressed his gratitude to the Foundation for its continuous support for the Confucius Institute in Sofia. He has pointed out that over the past nineteen years, under the fruitful cooperation between the University of Sofia and the BFSU, the number of the Chinese classes and the teaching centers under the Confucius Institute in Sofia have been increasing. The spectrum of Chinese language students has been significantly broadened, the quality of teaching and the scientific research have been improved on a large scale, and the Confucius Institute has achieved a lot of fruitful results. Prof. Valchev has shared his belief that the Confucius Institute in Sofia is an important driving force for exchanges between China and Bulgaria in the fields of culture, education, economy, science and technology, as well as that the CIS it is an important platform for the two universities to cultivate linguistic talents and to expand their development opportunities. In particular, the Confucius Institute has assisted Sofia University in recent years to develop a joint PhD programme in Artificial Intelligence with other overseas educational institutions, which has become a feature of the Sofia University. Prof. Valchev has said that as the year 2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and Bulgaria, he is being resolute that the University of Sofia, the Confucius Institute in Sofia and the secondary schools and univerities from the Confucius Institute family, will continue to make joint efforts to contribute to the deepening of the friendship between the two countries.
The Secretary General Zhao Lingshan has warmly welcomed the delegation. He has expressed his gratitude to the Sofia University for its long-term support to the Confucius Institute in Sofia, and has highly appreciated the achievements of the Confucius Institute in Sofia as a model Confucius Institute in the Chinese language teaching, the talent cultivation, the synergistic development and the promotion of educational cooperation between the two countries. The Secretary General has pointed out that the People’s Republic of China and Bulgaria have been traditionally on very friendly terms, and that Bulgaria is the second country in the world to have recognised the new country and to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. He has also added that Bulgaria is a good friend and partner state of China. The Sofia University and the Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) are both top institutions teaching each other's national languages and training international talents, and the cooperation between the two universities has a long history and a strong foundation. It it is believed that on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between the two countries, they will jointly open a new chapter in the operation of the Confucius Institutes.

Source: Confucius Institute in Beijing
English translation: Maya Kostadinova