Business Confucius Institute in Athens/AUEB has jointly organized with IOBE the 3rd Hellenic Chinese Business Partnering Business Conference 2014 on April 28 at Evgenides Foundation with great success.

Giannis Stounaras, Minister of Finance of Greece, Zou Xiaoli, Chinese Ambassador to Greece and groups of Chinese business delegation and Chinese governmental officials showed a great deal of support and attended this event. The rector of AUEB Prof. Gatsios Konstantinos and vice president, Prof. Liu Ya from UIBE, representing two collaborating universities, had given very instructive and informative speeches on current economic and financial situation in Greece and China. Both people have conducted very fruitful discussion in their speeches and in the afternoon a signing ceremony between Greek Chinese Trade and Culture Association and one Greek company Group was held under the audience eyewitnesses. A B2B meeting was organized in the wake of the conference and BCI teachers and some students participated in the event and served as assistants and interpreters for the conference during the day.

On October 26, 2013, in order to celebrate the 4th Anniversary of Business Confucius Institute/AUEB, BCI held a seminar with 40 representatives from Chinese educational and cultural circles and exchanged opinions and suggestions of the sustainable development of Chinese teaching. Professor Konstantine Gatsios，Rector of the Athens University of Business and Economics, Mr. Zhang Zhan, Cultural Attache of Chinese Embassy in Greece, and the Co-Directors of Business Confucius Institute Ms Yang Xiuqin and Dr. Dimitris Kardaras attended the event.

The Rector Prof. Gatsios gave a warm welcome speech on behalf of BCI/AUEB. Mr. Zhang Zhan delivered a speech and gave a high praise to 4-year achievements of BCI so far, especially BCI’s contribution to the promotion of Chinese language and culture, and support to the Chinese teachers who are working in Greece.

During the seminar，Co-Director Ms Yang Xiuqin gave a report of the teaching work, events and activities held by BCI this year and encouraged other Chinese teachers continue to strengthen and improve teaching methodology, good choice of teaching materials and a high attitude towards promoting exchanges between Chinese and Greek cultures. The meeting was ended up with a heated and academic discussion among all participants.

On Feb.8, BCI held the 2013 Chinese Spring Festival Performance and Party, with the presence of Mr. Du Qiwen, the Chinese Ambassador, Mr. Fotis Provatas, Deputy Mayor of Athens, Prof. Konstantine Gatsios, Rector of AUEB, Mr. Zhou, CEO of Huawei, and other friends and guests from all walks of life in Greece. There were around 200 people in total attended this event.

BCI students put a variety of different performances on in Chinese, which won big applauses from the audiences. These performances included Chinese folk music, Chinese cross-talks, Hulusi, Modern Beijing opera, martial art, Taiji and folk dances. The performers were amateurs, but they presented high quality shows. The shows were highly appreciated by Mr. Du Qiwen, the Chinese Ambassador, and other guests. After the performances, there were New Year Eve Dinner and all people sat together to celebrate the Chinese Snake Year.

With the development of China’s economy and influence, more and more foreign friends are learning Chinese language, China’s customs and traditions in BCI, making it a new platform for cultural exchanging and promoting bi-understanding between two Peoples.