The Business Confucius Institute in Athens was established at AUEB. The official opening ceremony took place on October 8th, 2009 at Megaron, The Athens Concert Hall

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1The Business Confucius Institute in Athens (BCI-Athens) was established at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB). The official opening ceremony took place on October 8th, 2009 at Megaron, The Athens Concert Hall, in the

presence of the President of the Hellenic Republic, Dr Karolos Papoulias.

The Confucius Institute is a non-profit educational organization that develops a number of activities to satisfy the demands of people from different countries and

regions in the world who wish to strengthen educational, cultural exchanges and cooperation, and deepen friendly relations with China. Individual Confucius Institutes are encouraged to develop their own portfolio of activities, depending on the local needs

and resources.

1Until October 2008, more than 300 Confucius Institutes have been established in many countries and regions. The Business Confucius Institute in Athens is the 1st Confucius

Institute in Greece and the 3rd Business Confucius Institute in Europe, after London Business School and Copenhagen Business School.

1The ceremony was opened with the speech of the Rector of AUEB, Professor Gregory Prastacos and continued with the speeches of the Ambassador of

the People's Republic of China in the Hellenic Republic, Mr Luo Linquan, the Deputy Chief Executive of the Confucius Institute Headquarters, Mr Ma Jianfei, the Chief of Council of the University of International Business and Economics of Beijing (UIBE),

Mrs Wang Ling, and the President of the Greece-China Association, Mr Andreas Potamianos. Afterwards, the plaque of the Institute was unveiled by Professor Prastacos and Mr Ma and later on the two Co-Directors of BCI-Athens, Assistant Professor

Dimitris Kardaras and Associate Professor Yang Xiuqin, presented the general program line of the Institute (Basic Language Training Programs and the Cultural related Programs) and the Proposed Business Activities.

1The ceremony was closed with the splendid performance of the cultural activities of the groups of AUEB, UIBE, and the Beijing School of Acrobatics. The group of AUEB's Students

Club performed Greek traditional dancing from Thrace and Crete. UIBE and the Beijing School of Acrobatics performed martial arts, glamorous dancers and singers, ball catching, playing bowl tricks on a high single wheel bicycle, acrobatic "Power of one

hand" and calligraphy.

1The Business Confucius Institute in Athens will develop a number of educational and cultural activities to promote these objectives: it will offer certified Chinese

language courses to Greek students, will train teachers to teach Chinese in Greek schools, will organize activities and seminars on culture, philosophy, business, the arts, and will organize classes on other popular aspects of Chinese life, such as cooking,

Kung Fu or calligraphy. At the same time it will support research on important issues of management and economics. Among the important targets of BCI-Athens are the development of exchange programs of students and faculty with Chinese Universities,

and the promotion of business cooperation between Greece and China.

 

 

Last updated: 12 December 2016