On 11 October at 14:00 at the Confucius Institute, the official opening of the XI International Academic Conference “Diplomatic, Economic and Cultural Relations between China and Central and Eastern European Countries” took place. It is annually organized by the Confucius Institute at “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo. In addition to the 75th anniversary of the establishment of Bulgarian-Chinese diplomatic relations, this year's forum was also dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the birth of Prof. Bora Belivanova, PhD – an eminent scholar, sinologist, translator and lecturer at “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo. The conference was attended by a number of experts and scientists from various educational institutions, lecturers, and PhD students from Bulgaria (“St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, UNWE, “Paisii Hilendarski” Plovdiv University, BAS), as well as representatives of institutions from China, Romania and Hungary.
Prof. Dimitar Dimitrov, PhD, Rector of “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo, officially opened the conference, and greetings were given by Eng. Daniel Panov, PhD – The Mayor of Veliko Tarnovo Municipality and H.E. Ms. Dai Qingli – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Republic of Bulgaria. The event was attended by a number of official guests, including representatives of the Bulgarian Parliament, the regional government, the Embassy of the People's Republic of China, mayors and deputy mayors of municipalities with which the CI cooperates, rectors and deputy rectors of Bulgarian universities, deans, directors of Confucius Institutes from neighboring countries, researchers from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences,and directors of schools and kindergartens in which Chinese is taught, etc.
Part of the conference program was the presentation of the bilingual edition of the PRC Administrative Procedure Law. The initiative for the launch of the project for the translation of the normative document into Bulgarian language comes from Prof. Dr. Habil Tsvetan Sivkov, who is a prominent specialist in administrative law and administrative procedure, a long-time lecturer at the Faculty of Law of Sofia and Veliko Tarnovo Universities, Dean of the Faculty of Law at “St. Cyril and St. Methodius” University of Veliko Tarnovo in the period 2009 – 2018. The realization of the project was successful thanks to the efforts of Assoc. Prof. Iskra Mandova, PhD – Bulgarian director of CI at UVT. Prof. Sivkov, who is also the author of the foreword and commentary to the book, made a presentation on the publication.
The forum was held over two days and covered a wide range of topics concerning diplomatic relations between China and other countries, as well as geopolitics, economy, ecology, trade, energy, demography of the country, etc. A number of topics in the fields of Chinese language teaching methodology, translation and linguistics, literature, cinema, culture, mythology, traditions, martial arts, tourism, etc. were also covered. The International Academic Conference has established itself as an important forum for scientific and cultural exchange and a platform for exchanging ideas and deepening cooperation in the field of culture and education.