Saudi Arabia opens first Confucius Institute

RIYADH, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Arabia has inaugurated the Confucius Institute in the Prince Sultan University in the kingdom's capital Riyadh, marking the official opening of the first of such institute in the kingdom.

The university's President Ahmed Bin Saleh Al-Yamani and Yin Lijun, charge d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in Saudi Arabia, attended the opening ceremony on Sunday.

Al-Yamani said the institute, which is co-built with Shenzhen University in China, would provide valuable opportunities for Saudi students and young people to study the Chinese language and culture.

It would also play a positive role in promoting cultural and economic exchanges and cooperation between China and Saudi Arabia, he added.

In his address at the institute's opening, Yin said the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries has maintained a momentum of rapid development and the cooperation in various fields has been continuously deepened and expanded.

Today, Chinese-language majors are offered in four Saudi universities and Chinese courses are on the curriculum of eight primary and secondary schools, he noted.

He believed that the new Confucius Institute would help more young Saudis to know better about Chinese cultural and serve as a bridge for the two countries' exchanges and cooperation in various fields.

Zhang Xinying, Chinese dean of the Confucius Institute from Shenzhen University, told Xinhua that the institute is committed to offering good Chinese language teaching, international student exchanges and China-Arab cultural exchanges.