The 5th Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Cultural Expo and the 10th Dunhuang Tour-Silk Road International Tourism Festival were held both online and offline in Dunhuang International Exhibition Center on September 24th. It’s an event to discuss ways of cultural communication and to share cultural prosperity. The theme of the conference and the festival was “symphonic Silk Road, cultural expo for all”. A keynote video speech was made by Huang Kunming, member of the political bureau of the CPC central committee, secretary of the central secretariat and minister of the CPC publicity department.
On behalf of provincial party committee and provincial government, Yin Hong, secretary of the Gansu provincial party committee and director of the standing committee of the provincial people’s congress, extended his warm welcome for all guests. He said that the expo and the festival were grand events for Gansu, even regions along the route. The “belt and road” initiative brought up by the Chinese president Xi Jinping enabled the ancient Silk Road to shine again and turned great wishes into amazing reality. In recent years, especially since this year, Gansu had been making full use of the opportunities offered by the “belt and road” initiative; improving exchanges and cooperation with regions along the route and accelerating the construction of a fully opening structure with policy communication, infrastructure connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and people-to-people connectivity. The joint construction of the “belt and road” passed hope to one another, pursuit development and seek win-win cooperation. Gansu government would like to work with friends from home and abroad to build a road of cooperation, health, recovery and growth; create a promising future of win-win cooperation and write a new chapter of the prosperity and rejuvenation of the Silk Road.
Li Yufu, vice chairman of the study committee of culture and history of the national CPPCC, and Arthayudh Srisamoot, Thailand ambassador to China, attended the expo. Ren Zhenhe, governor and vice secretary of the provincial party committee, hosted the expo.
Zhang Xu, vice minister of culture and tourism, delivered a speech, saying that the Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Cultural Expo and the Dunhuang Tour-Silk Road International Tourism Festival would enhance governmental and non-governmental cooperation in terms of people-to-people exchanges; improve national cultural recognition of the “belt and road” initiative and promote the common feeling of people from various countries, so as to contribute to a community with a shared destiny enabling it’s members to overcome difficulties together.
Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea who was also a representative of the host country gave a video speech saying that the Silk Road was not only a main passage connecting the east and the west as well as a starting point of the rapid development of human civilization. The expo was held in Dunhuang, the center of the amazing civilization of the Silk Road, which was a remainder of the significance of cultural communication in human history. He hoped that the Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Cultural Expo would enable Dunhuang to be rediscovered as a connecting point for communication between civilization as well as a bridge to link the world.
Analoly Markevich, Belarus’s culture minister, said in his video speech that Belarus was one of the earliest supporters of the initiative of the rejuvenation of the Silk Road, and now, an important supportive country of the “belt and road” initiative in Europe, largely promoting cultural prosperity and people-to-people communication. We had been following the spirit of the “Dunhuang Declaration”; sticking to the principles of cultural diversity, equality and inclusiveness; protecting historical and cultural heritages in the countries along the route and improve cultural exchanges of various levels. We expected China to make new achievement in the joint construction of a human community with a shared destiny.
Zhu Shanzhong, the executive director of WTO, said in his video speech that the joint construction of the “belt and road” not only made new space for Chinese development and opening-up, but also offered new opportunities for different countries in the world. The expo and the festival was significant because it provided an open and inclusive platform for the recovery and development of global tourism and cultural industry. With the help of the “silk road project”, the WTO would enhance it’s support to the “belt and road” tourism and cultural industry of Gansu province.
The coordination director of world cultural heritage and sustainable tourism of the Word Bank said in his video speech that the expo and festival were significant to Gansu tourism recovery and to the successful implementation of the loans from world bank to “cultural heritage and innovative development project of the economic belt of the Silk Road in Gansu”.
Shahbaz Khan, UNESCO representative in China, delivered a speech, saying that UNESCO had been a firm supporter of the “belt and road” initiative as well as had been pushing forward the cultural and scientific research along the route and promoting diversified communication of B&R countries. He wished the expo and the festival would be successful.
After the speech-giving process, Yin Hong, Li Yufu, Ren Zhenhe, Zhangxu and others touched the icons to announce the opening of the 5th Silk Road (Dunhuang) International Cultural Expo and the 10th Dunhuang Tour-Silk Road International Tourism Festival.