CULTURE IS THE BRIDGE TO OUR HEARTS

Justas an old Chinese saying goes, friendship, which derives from close contact between the people, holds the key to sound bilateral relations. Culture is precisely the bridge that brings our hearts together. As economic globalisation makes exchanges between cultures increasingly convenient and frequent, cultural exchange plays a more prominent role in promoting people-to-people understanding and friendship, as well as state-to-state relationships.

The world today is far from tranquil, having entered a new period of turmoil and transformation that is characterised by frequent regional conflicts, sluggish economic recovery, the spreading of extremism and the exacerbating of global problems. At this crucial juncture in history, we need more than ever before to uphold humanity’s common values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy and freedom, as well as to confront risks and challenges together with unity, inclusion, coexistence, dialogue and mutual learning. In this context, cultural exchange will definitely make an ever more important contribution to maintaining world peace and stability, and to achieving wellbeing and progress for humankind.

China has always attached importance to, and actively promoted, cultural exchanges with the rest of the world. Enhancing people-to-people bonds constitutes one of the important objectives of the Belt and Road Initiative. This March, President Xi Jinping presented the Global Civilisation Initiative, which advocates pushing forward equal dialogue and exchange among civilisations and facilitating the advancement of humanity through inclusion and mutual learning.

The enhancing China-Serbia cultural exchange has become a significant bond of our friendship. The Serbian people are increasingly interested in learning the Chinese language and seven Chinese universities have established Serbian faculties. We have set up cultural centres in each other’s capitals. The celebration of Orthodox Easter was held by the Serbian cultural centre in China, which introduced the Serbian tradition and culture and taught Chinese people to make Easter eggs. The event was widely welcomed. Celebrating Chinese New Year together has already become a routine in our bilateral cultural exchange. This year we organised the “Happy Lunar New Year: Caravan of Friendship Along the Silk Road” celebration in five Serbian cities and received warm welcomes. China has participated as the leading guest in the 44th Belgrade International Fair of Tourism. I believe that, with the accelerated recovery of tourism, our people-to-people exchange will be further promoted.

AENGUS COLLINS, Head of Economic Growth and Transformation, World Economic Forum