The Ninth Council Meeting of the Confucius Institute at the University of Tirana (UT) was held online on Oct 27.

Those in attendance of the event included Bernard Dosti, deputy rector of UT; Mirlinda Boshnjaku and Pranvera Lazo, council members of the university; Jia Wenjian, deputy secretary of the Party committee of Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) and vice-president of the university; Ke Jing, dean of the School of European Languages and Cultures; Jin Limin, director of the Office of Confucius Institutes at BFSU; and Zhang Xiaoying and Erion Malaj, directors of the Confucius Institute.

The Ninth Council Meeting of the Confucius Institute at UT is held online on Oct 27. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

Jia affirmed the innovative achievements made by the Confucius Institute in Chinese language teaching and academic exchanges. He said that the number of Chinese learners at UT had increased thanks to the platform provided by the institute while BFSU students have also been enthusiastic in learning Albanian. Both sides have contributed towards cultural exchanges between China and Albania through language learning.

Dosti thanked BFSU for the university's support to the Confucius Institute at UT and commended the institute for its hard work, going on to say that he hoped students there would pay more attention to Chinese language and culture.

Attendees of the meeting deliberate the work reports of the Confucius Institute and discuss its development plan. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

Attendees of the meeting deliberated the work and financial reports of the Confucius Institute for the past year and discussed its development plan for this year. They exchanged views on the cooperation agreement between the two universities.

The Confucius Institute at UT opened on Nov 18, 2013. Constructed by BFSU and UT, it is the only Confucius Institute established in the Republic of Albania.

Through Chinese language teaching, cultural communication and overseas study services, the institute has established a platform for Sino-Albanian exchanges. It plans to gradually build a training base for local Chinese teachers and provide professional guidance to young people and educators in the country, as well as offer talents for Chinese language education in Albania.