Your Excellency Ambassador Ali Dhaheri,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning! I am delighted to attend the “Silk Road Cultural Tour—Chinese Digital Culture Exhibition Week”. First of all, I would like to express sincere thanks to the co-hosts of this event, the UAE Ministry of Culture and Youth, Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as well as “Hala China” and China Culture and Entertainment Industry Association (CCEA). I would also like to extend warm welcome to all friends participating in this event!

As Chinese President Xi Jinping points out, the youth is the most active and vigorous force in the entire society. “Silk Road Cultural Tour—Chinese Digital Culture Exhibition Week” is an event designed for young people from China and the UAE, which views the world through the youth’s eyes, discusses creative ideas in the youth’s minds, upholds the Silk Road spirit, and focuses on innovative development. This digital culture-based event is a good practice to promote people-to-people exchange and a best interpretation of President Xi’s remarks.

Young people have great vitality and quick minds. Digital culture, with its fashionable appeal, is young people’s favorite. It is not only a new high ground for culture industry across world, but also a new content for international cultural and people-to-people exchange and cooperation. Digital culture combines the charm of traditional arts with the power of technological innovations, thus fully unleashing the development momentum of culture industry. Animations, computer games, e-sports, streaming videos, to name a few, have become new fashions in driving economic growth and cultural consumption.

“Good friends feel close even when they are thousands of miles apart.” The Silk Road stretching since 2000 years ago has broken through the limits of time and space, connecting China and the UAE close together. With the personal care and cultivation of our two leaderships, China-UAE traditional friendship is ever-deepening, and our comprehensive strategic partnership is making new progress. The UAE champions the development philosophy of openness, tolerance, peace and diversity, which is special in the Middle East, while China upholds the Silk Road spirits, which features peaceful cooperation, openness and inclusiveness, mutual-learning and mutual benefit. Great minds think alike. Our two countries are jointly building a community of shared future for mankind. Our shared focus on youth development has laid a solid foundation for deepening and substantiating our collaboration in digital industries and cultural exchanges.

Currently, as the world braces for a serious second wave of COVID-19, global cultural and tourism industries are facing tremendous challenges. Since the outbreak, China and the UAE have been supporting each other and consolidating our brotherly bonds. We have been fighting hand in hand, deepening our political mutual-trust, and setting an exemplary model in international cooperation against COVID-19. Young people of our two countries have also come up with new models of communication, jointly charting the bright future of our digital and culture industries through online information-sharing and exchanges. I am convinced that the exhibition week will be a feast of high-level digital and culture exchange for the Chinese and UAE people.

In conclusion, I hope that China-UAE cultural and people-to-people exchanges under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative will make new achievements! I wish the “Silk Road Cultural Tour—Chinese Digital Culture Exhibition Week” a complete success! Thank you!