GUANGZHOU, Nov.30 (Xinhua) -- Cross-border cultural exchange is of significant importance to better promote cooperation in international trade , experts noted during "The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road" Forum on International Communication and Chinese (Guangdong) Companies Going Global on Wednesday in Zhuhai, a coastal city at south China's Guangdong province.
People-to-people dialogue is the key to better understand each other, better live together avoiding conflicts and misunderstandings and do business, Julie Patterson, co-president of China Arts Festival in the European Union, said on the forum. She highlighted the significance of cultural trade between China and EU, which is resulted from the fruitful cultural exchanges.
"Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and EU, the trade between the two sides has increased by more than 230 times. Among the trade between China and EU, cultural trade occupies one of the important seats. China and EU annuallyimport and export a large number of core cultural products and services to eachother. Data shows that in 2015, China took the highest proportion of extra-EU imports of cultural goods and is within the list of the top 10 destinations of EU export market. EU is already one of China's major cultural trading partners now",Julie Patterson said.
Through many of the significant cultural projects between China and European member states over the past years, the cultural exchanges have been continually bringing new prosperities to the two sides in terms of cultural trade under the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. Launched at the occasion of the 40th anniversary of EU-China diplomatic relations, China Arts Festival aims to promote cultural and artistic exchanges under the EU-China High-level People-to-People Dialogue framework, and has played an active role as a permanent platform for Talents Bridge, which is an important vector of success for people-to-people dialogue.
István Ujhelyi, president of Europe China One Belt and One Road Cultural and Tourism Development Committee said that it is important to enhance the soft-power of people-to-people dialogue, and to promote mutual trust and understanding internationally under the circumstance of terrorism threat and growing numbers of populist voices nowadays.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche, founder of the International Schiller Institute, Germany, said on the forum that the concept of a “community of a shared future of mankind” has pushed forward the development of international trade cooperation in recent years. The ancient Silk Road led to exchanges of not only goods and technologies, but also ideas and cultures. The New Silk Road will lead to sharing of the best expressions of human creativity for the benefit of the one humanity. Communication, travel and knowledge about each other have sped up tremendously and will continue to do so.
The Belt and Road Initiative isn’t only targeting infrastructure and logistics projects on the ancient silk road, this is a message of peace and cooperation between China and the World, using culture as a major channel of communication for better mutual understanding and a step to prosperity, Julie Patterson said. (Edited by Ma Xin, maxin11@xinhua.org，Tang Yun, Luo Jingjing )
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