By Xue Lingqiao
(ECNS) -- "Culture is important to a country and its people. China enjoys an ancient civilization, and I really appreciate China's efforts in carrying out cultural communications and developing cultural undertakings" said Oumar Demba BA, former Chief Diplomatic Adviser to the President of Senegal and CEO of the Foundation Macky Sall Paix Dialogue Development (Peace-Dialogue-Development) during an interview before the 2024 Beijing Cultural Forum.
With a permanent theme of "Inheritance, Creativity, Mutual Learning," the forum is being held from September 19 to 21, with this year’s specific focus on "Enhance Culture Exchanges for Common Progress".
"China is home to the Four great Inventions and is also representative of cultural products of brush, ink, paper and inkstone. Meanwhile, China is among the leading countries in artificial intelligence," said Demba BA. He pointed out that China enjoys representative productions in both ancient and modern times, its continuous efforts on technological progress serves the key to the enduring brilliance of the Chinese civilization.
"I spoke highly of China's efforts in technological development, and Senegal should exchange with China in this field," Demba BA added.
China is now the second-largest host destination for African students, after France. Frequent folk exchanges reflect traditional friendship of China-Africa and a key aspect of their relations.
Noting that education plays a crucial role in a country's development strategy, Demba BA believed that the a country's progress is closely related not only to its natural resources, but also to its high-quality talent pool. Hereby, the communication and cooperation between China and Africa in education will help promote bilateral cultural communication.
Before the forum, Demba BA visited the university in east China's Zhejiang Province, where he noticed that many African students study there. He noted that Chinese universities attach great importance to the courses of African literature works, with some of the renowned Senegalese works translated into Chinese and enter the classroom.
"China has launched multiple mechanisms to attract African students, who will in the future, become cultural envoys between the two sides," Demba BA said, expressing high hopes and optimism to the continued promotion of bilateral cultural communications.
In 2024, China is marking anniversaries of its diplomatic relations with several African countries, including Zambia and Tanzania, seeing several celebrations held in Beijing. Speaking of this, Demba BA emphasized that China and Africa have a long history of diplomatic relations, and bilateral diplomatic relations are strengthening.
"China is investing in Africa with infrastructure and other projects. In recent years, bilateral cultural and tourism cooperation is increasing booming," added him.
Taking Confucius Institutes in Africa as an example, he noticed that African students are learning Chinese philosophy in the institutes, while many African scholars also teach African culture for Chinese students at the institutes, creating two-way cultural exchange. He believed that in future years, both Chinese and African people will gain a deeper understanding of each other.
In the field of tourism resources development, he pointed out that African countries should continue to enhance the hotel and air transportation industries, building more infrastructure and increasing accommodation capacities to attract more Chinese tourists to Africa.
Noting that Beijing is intensifying efforts to strengthen its role as a cultural center, Demba BA stated that the city is the center of a diversified cultures and has potential to be a global cultural center, through its contributions to global culture development and communications.
"Through dialogues and communications, we learn from each other and we understand more about each other, so as to achieve a harmonious co-existence among civilizations," Demba BA concluded, sharing his expectations that different cultures can communicate and radiate with each other at the forum.
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