The Confucius Institute has celebrated its second anniversary with both Chinese and Ghanaian cultural performances at the Main Auditorium.

Speaking at the function, the Central Regional Minister, Mr. Kwamina Duncan, commended the University for hosting the Institute to promote the Chinese Language and culture and also extending it to other educational institutions in the region. He assured that the Regional Coordinating Council would ensure a peaceful environment to make the region secure for the Confucius Institute to develop and achieve its objectives.

Mr. Duncan said the region had benefitted immensely in terms of infrastructure projects from Ghana’s bilateral relations with China. He hoped that through the Confucius Institute, cultural exchange programmes between Ghana and China would increase for mutually beneficially relationship between the two nations.

Drawing inspiration from the Chinese story, the Regional Minister called on Ghanaians to emulate the exemplary attitude of discipline and a culture of determination to achieve success. “We need to imbibe the culture of discipline and the culture of determination to help in the development of our communities and the nation as whole,” he admonished. He said China presented a great lesson to Ghanaians to consider their ways of doing things.

Mr. Duncan was worried that some people have been instigating anti-China agenda on social media and called on Ghanaians to learn from the success story rather than denigrating the Chinese people.

The Provost of the College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Prof. L. K. Sam-Amoah, on behalf of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Ghartey Ampiah, said UCC’s relationship with the Confucius Institute was bearing fruits. He indicated that the University would continue to cooperate with the Institute to achieve more successes in the years ahead.

The Chinese Director of UCC Confucius Institute, Prof. Hu Langcai, who read a speech on behalf of the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, His Excellency, Shi Ting Wang, said UCC was the second University to host the Institute in the country. He reported that UCC Confucius Institute has made significant strides since its establishment two years ago.

Mr. Wang said in 2017, 20 students from UCC won the Chinese Ambassador Scholarship in addition to many students from Ghana who won various scholarships by the Chinese government to study in China. According to him several UCC students took part in the Chinese Bridge Proficiency Chinese Proficiency Communication in Ghana.

The Chinese Ambassador was hopeful that Ghanaians would make persistence effort to master the Ancient Chinese Language which has a history of 5, 000 years. He implored Ghanaians to “Study the Chinese Language, make Chinese friends, contribute towards the development of the Ghana-China relationship and believe in the bright future of UCC Confucius Institute”.

According to Mr. Wang, China-Africa relations would continue to flourish and, therefore, encouraged Ghanaian students to seize the historical opportunities and take advantage of Confucius Institutes.