加拿大驻华大使麦家廉大使讲话

Distinguished guests, dear students and teachers, ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon.

It is truly an honor to be here with you today.

About two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a grand Canada Day celebration at the amazing facilities of the Canadian International School of Beijing. I was with Minister Chagger and her business delegation. It was a wonderful showcase event to promote the Canada-China Year of Tourism.

Like tourism, Education is also a strong pillar of the Canada-China relationship, and it is a unique and exceptionally important bridge between our peoples and cultures.

As a former educator myself, I am a great believer in the formative and transformative power of education. That’s why I am so pleased to be here today to witness the success of a unique learning model through education cooperation between Canada and China.

On behalf of the Embassy of Canada, I would like to offer my very sincere congratulations to the Concord Colleges of Sino-Canada Group for 21 years of hard work, and overcoming challenges with successes. Well done, Dr. Francis Pang and your team!

Secondly, let me congratulate all the graduates of 2018, their teachers and families for the great academic achievements they have made. I would also like to congratulate the many of you who were accepted by Canadian universities and colleges and will be moving to Canada very shortly. You will see, Canada is a great place to study!

Canada’s postsecondary education system offers world-class education; a safe, welcoming and inclusive society in which to learn; and an effective pathway for international students to go on and become the global citizens of tomorrow.

No matter in which areas you will choose to study, I am sure you will become goodwill ambassadors between our two countries, just like those 14,000 Concord alumnus and 140,000 Chinese students currently studying in Canada!

The importance of education exchange was underlined by our leaders on multiple occasions before, including in 2016 Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Li Keqiang witnessed our first ever Memorandum of Understanding on Education Cooperation.

We at the Embassy of Canada and in our network of offices across China are working hard to help build linkages between Chinese and Canadian schools at all levels, and to promote greater flows of students in both directions.

Concord schools are a key part of our education community and, for their many students and the communities in which they operate, they are also a window on Canada, a piece of Canada brought to China.

They – and all of you gathered here today – will help make an already close and friendly relationship even deeper!

Finally I would like to thank all the Chinese and Canadian partners for your continued support and contribution to the success of this great learning model.

Once again, my sincere congratulations to the network of Concord colleges. My very best wishes to all the students and their families!

Thank you.