Democratic Republic of Congo Establishes First Confucius Institute to Boost Chinese Learning

On December 21st local time, the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and the Congolese Diplomatic Academy signed an agreement on establishing the Confucius Institute at the Congo-lese Diplomatic Academy, marking the establishment of the first Confucius Institute in the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the website of the Chinese Embassy in the country.

Previously, Dede Birhonga Ndemba, Director of the Congolese Diplomatic Academy, had at-tended the 12th Confucius Institute Conference held in Xi’an by the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and accepted the nameplate of the Confucius Institute. As the cooperative partner on the Chinese side, Central South University has been actively coordinating with the Congolese Diplomatic Academy in a bid to open classes at the Confucius Institute as soon as possible.

The Chinese Embassy pointed out that the first Confucius Institute in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) has made up the shortage of Chinese teaching in the country and that it will help promote Chinese learning, meet local people’s needs for learning Chinese and knowing about China and Chinese culture, effectively enhance cultural and people-to-people exchanges and cooperation between China and DR Congo as well as the friendship between the two peoples.

(chinanews.com, December 25th)