28 April 2011

Mr Yuan Guiren, China’s Minister for Education, hosted a Chinese Spring Festival Reception for the diplomatic community on 21 January 2011 in Beijing. This was the first time for the Ministry of Education (MoE) had hosted such a reception; it was well attended by about 230 senior officials from foreign embassies, including 70 ambassadors or deputy heads of mission. About 100 officials from the MoE, heads of MoE affiliated organisations and presidents of Chinese universities also attended the reception. Senior MoE leaders in attendance included Minister Yuan and five vice-ministers. Mr Iain Watt, Minister-Counsellor (Education), attended the reception as the representative of the Australian Embassy.

The reception was chaired by Mr Hao Ping, Vice-Minister of Education. In his speech, Minister Yuan extended the MoE’s appreciation to the diplomatic community in China for their support and efforts to promote educational cooperation and exchanges between China and the rest of the world. The Minister also noted:

• China’s development involves the rest of the world. China’s education has made significant progress since it has been aligned with world education development.
• The key to China’s future development is the talents of its people and that education is the key foundation.
• The strategic objectives of China’s “National Outline for Medium and Long Term Education Reform and Development (for 2010–2020)” include the following: 
  -       achieving higher level of popularisation of education
  -       putting in place education equity that will benefit all members of China’s society
  -       providing more quality educational resources to meet the demands of the general public
  -       establishing a comprehensive life-long learning system
  -       developing a dynamic education system that will provide a world-class and modern education with Chinese characteristics.
• Education is an important component of people-to-people exchanges between countries and regions. The MoE will further expand international cooperation and exchanges, learn from the advanced concepts and experiences in other countries, introduce quality education resources to China and raise the standard of education internationalisation.

 Full text of Minister Yuan’s speech