On March 27, President of Madagascar Hery Rajaonarimampianina visited RUC and delivered a speech.

Deputy Director General of Department of African Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Dai Bing and Madagascar Ambassador to China Yang H.E. Mr. Victor Sikonina were in attendance. RUC Chairwoman JIN Nuo gave a welcoming address.

RUC Chairwoman JIN Nuo expressed, there has been a long history of friendship between China and Madagascar. Since 1972, both sides have had good cooperation and development over the years. Madagascar is located on the Indian Ocean, and President of Madagascar Hery has led the people of Madagascar to rely on their own wisdom and hard work to achieve success, resulting in Madagascar’s current prosperity and development today. President Hery called on RUC students, discussing the development between China and Madagascar, especially underlining the desire and hope to strengthen China-Madagascar culture and higher education exchange cooperation, under today’s new circumstances on the world stage and on-going transformations.

RUC Chairwoman JIN Nuo pointed out, RUC is focused in humanities and social sciences, combining information sciences, environmental sciences, and engineering sciences together to create a comprehensive research university, which has been praised as a flagship Chinese humanities and social sciences higher education institution. For a long time, RUC has attached great importance to exchanges with Madagascar and domestic African higher institutions, and also promoting exchanges with Central Africa’s youth in languages and cultural understanding. We believe that the President’s visit will open a new chapter of cooperation and exchange between the two countries.

President Hery expressed, RUC is full of life, and I can see that the future development of this nation needs men of tremendous talents. President Hery introduced to RUC teachers and students the local practices and customs of Madagascar. Madagascar is the world’s fourth largest island, located in the Indian Ocean, off the eastern coast of Africa that has unique and highly valuable animal and plant resources, and thus bears a great responsibility to environmental protection.

President Hery pointed out that in 2017, Madagascar and China celebrated 45 years of diplomatic relations. China has already become one of Madagascar’s most important trade partners, in agriculture, infrastructure construction, real estate, mineral exploits, culture and health, among many other domains. Chinese enterprises have provided many employment opportunities for the people of Madagascar. The Belt and Road Initiative is an enormously important endeavor, as it provides insights into strategies and ideas for development. Madagascar is a place full of opportunity. Today, coming to RUC to share this all with you, we hope that in the future there will be more opportunities to organize exchanges and that we can work together to meet tomorrow’s challenges and work towards establishing world peace.

RUC Vice President YI Zhihong presided over the speech.

During the speech, President Hery played a video for the audience introducing everyone to Madagascar’s open and beautiful natural landscapes and its pleasant climate and rich resources.

After the speech, there was a Q&A session, where students asked President Hery about his impressions of China, his opinion on China-Madagascar relations under an international context, Madagascar tourism sector development strategies, and his standpoint on Madagascar climate changes and measures, and how Madagascar will balance its economic development while still protecting its environment.

Before the speech, Chairwoman JIN met with President Hery, to engage in dialogue about the next steps in promoting China-Madagascar education and culture.

Chairwoman JIN welcomed President Hery’s visit. She expressed that RUC is one of China’s most important educational institutions, and RUC is one of the best in the humanities and sciences. RUC has always attached great importance in its cooperation with Madagascar’s domestic African higher education institutes. She hopes that President Hery’s visit can strengthen cooperation between the two countries.

President Hery expressed, Madagascar truly hopes to develop more cooperation with China in education and cultural exchanges. Madagascar would like to encourage its’ youth to look forward, and study abroad at RUC, one of the nation’s most prestigious universities, and increase educational exchanges, and most importantly leverage these opportunities to create better mutual understanding between youth of both countries, for education is the key to a country’s development. I believe that this visit will be mutually beneficial in expanding our cooperation in education and culture.

Chairwoman Jin Nuo, representing RUC, presented President Hery with a creative work of art made by RUC Fine Arts students. President Hery presented gifts of handcrafted wood carvings of Madagascar landscapes to RUC.

RUC Committee Deputy Secretary DENG Shuiquan, RUC Assistant and HR Director GUO Honglin, RUC International Exchange Division Director ZHANG Xiaojing, among other distinguished RUC representatives attended the speech.

Madagascar President of Agriculture, Madagascar Secretary of Animal Husbandry and other notable Madagascar delegates accompanied the visit.