Chinese Vice Premier Madame Liu Yandong visits Cardiff
The Vice Premier of China, Madame Liu Yandong will visit Cardiff at the end of this week (Friday 18 - Saturday 19 September).
The Vice Premier will meet with First Minister Carwyn Jones and visit Cardiff University and the National Museum of Wales. A visit to one of Wales’s castles - a favourite with every international visitor - has also been promised.
At Cardiff University Madame Liu will speak at the Cardiff Forum on UK-China Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which will be attended by representatives from universities across the UK and China.
Director of British Council Wales, Jenny Scott, said: “The relationship between China and the UK is flourishing, with increasing opportunities for partnership, and we are glad we have been able to help our colleagues in China bring Madame Liu Yandong and her delegation to Cardiff. We hope to see more links developed between Wales and China in the future, particularly between our two higher education sectors.
“The British Council also encourages links between British and Chinese schools through the Connecting Classrooms programme, and we are planning to extend the current UK-China School Partnership programme by a further three years and this will be managed from our office in Cardiff.”
Madam Liu’s visit is part of the UK-China High Level People to People Dialogue - one of three sets of meetings which, with the UK-China Summit led by Prime Minister David Cameron, form the main political and economic engagement between the UK and China.
This week has also seen a visit to Cardiff by a group of Chinese arts professionals. The visit was managed by the British Council Cultural Skills team in Cardiff. The group visited St Fagans National History Museum, Wales Millennium Centre, Chapter Arts Centre and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.
Over the past three decades the UK and China have enjoyed a flourishing relationship built on the exchange of commerce, people and ideas. China is now the UK’s second largest trading partners and more than 300,000 Chinese citizens travelled to the UK in 2014. Education is a cornerstone of the relationship, with nearly 90,000 Chinese students studying in the UK in the most recent school year, and more than 250 UK higher education partnerships currently operating in China.
The UK-China High Level People to People Dialogue is one of three strategic dialogues which, together with the UK-China Summit led by the Prime Minister, form the main political and economic engagement between the UK and China.
On September 17, 2015 the third meeting of the UK-China High Level People to People Dialogue will take place London. The Dialogue, co-chaired by UK Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt, and Chinese Vice Premier Madame Liu Yandong, covers eight strands of co-operation: Education, Health, Science & Technology, Sport, Culture & Creative Industries, Tourism, Youth and Sub-national Cooperation.
On September 18, 2015, as part of the wider dialogue, there will be a series of education events in Cardiff, organised by the British Council and China Education Association of International Exchange, supported by the Welsh Government, Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, Cardiff University, UK Higher Education International Unit, Association of Colleges and Colleges Wales.
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