(July 23) At the Hanan (Confucius Institute headquarters) in Beijing, representatives from Changsha University of Science and Technology (CSUST) and Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) gathered to meet with Hanban panels in a bid to operate a Confucius Institute (CI) at Sabah, East Malaysia.

Mr. Fu Hongyuan, University Council Chair of CSUST and head of the delegation team of CSUST, stated the university’s stance and goals of setting up a Confucius Institute with Universiti Malaysia Sabah and Chinese enterprises in Malaysia. He said the three-party collaboration would pan out from strength to strength and nurture a pour of engineering talents of which the Malaysian market is in crying need. He also expressed his thanks to Hanban colleagues in support of the existing Confucius Institutes in Liberia and Montenegro.

Speaking on behalf of Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Mr. Rasid Mail, Deputy Vice Chancellor, said this cooperation is strongly backed up by the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE), Malaysia. He believed overseas Chinese presence is key to Sabah community featured by its inclusive, multiracial and open atmosphere. Promoting the Chinese language at all levels would inject new vitality across nations and would help reduce misunderstandings between the two countries. Confucius Institute would serve a platform to local industries and create more possibilities within the Chinese community at large.

Mr. Ma Jianfei, General Director of Hanban fully affirmed the idea for the Confucius Institute in Sabah. He backed up the three-party endeavor to build an engineering-featured Confucius institute at Sabah, catering to the demand of Chinese and Malaysian enterprises. Mr. Ma further pledged to take the Sabah CI program into the overall planning of CI in Asia area. In addition, he hoped that the signing of the Sabah CI agreement can be listed on the agenda or schedule of Mahathir bin Mohamad’s visit to Beijing in August of this year, and in the future, Confucius Institute would play a bigger role in other affiliated services whilst further promote economic and trade exchanges between the two countries, consolidate the tripartite strength, and contribute its own part to the "Belt and Road" blueprint.