On January 23rd, the opening ceremony of “Chinese Training Workshop for Members of Thailand’s National Legislative Assembly” jointly organized by the Secretariat of the Senate and the Confucius Institute at Kasetsart University was held at the building of the National Legislative Assembly (NLA). Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, Speaker of NLA, Surachai Liengboonlertchai, First Vice President of NLA, Nut Phasuk, the assembly member and Secretary-General of Secretariat of the Senate, Lv Jian, Chinese Ambassador to Thailand and Lan Suhong, Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Thailand attended the event.
From left to right: Lv Jian, Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, and Surachai Liengboonlertchai
Wichitcholchai expressed in his speech that as China’s influence becomes ever stronger, the importance of Chinese language is growing. The training workshop will help the members improve their proficiency in Chinese, further strengthen the friendly relations between China and Thailand, and promote cooperation between the two countries in more areas.
Pornpetch Wichitcholchai delivering a speech
Lv Jian expressed that against the backdrop of China’s proposition of the “Belt and Road” initiative and Thailand’s active promotion of the economic strategy of “Thailand 4.0”, high-level exchanges between the two countries become more important to policy communication. The Chinese language used by the members during exchanges and mutual visits will enhance the mutual understanding and communication of the top leaders of both countries, thus promoting further cooperation between the two countries. Lv Jian hoped that the Confucius Institute at Kasetsart University could remain committed to making persistent efforts to making more contributions in larger scale to the exchanges between China and Thailand.
Lv Jian delivering a speech
The first Chinese language lesson for the members
SurachaiLiengboonlertchai giving an interview to a journalist from Xinhua News Agency
Twenty Assembly members have signed up for the training workshop. After the opening ceremony, the first lesson started as scheduled, and was lectured by the Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at Kasetsart University. The content of this lesson was practical, consisting of pleasantries and words for receiving. In addition, the Chinese oral expressions of Chinese customs, politics, economy and others were also included. The Confucius Institute will launch relevant Chinese cultural activities in accordance with the members’ needs to deepen their understanding of Chinese culture. (cited from Confucius Institute Headquarters, source: Confucius Institute at Kasetsart University)
