School establishes institute to boost ties with BRI countries

To support the tangible growth of the Belt and Road Initiative, Suzhou Foreign Language School, or SFLS, established a Silk Road International Institute earlier this month to enhance its ties with countries participating in the initiative.

SFLS, which runs 12 schools and kindergartens throughout East China's Jiangsu province, will invite well-known scholars, including professors from Zhejiang University, to give lectures to its students to enhance their global competence.

Dong Bin, general principal of SFLS, said the school group has continuously promoted collaboration with countries and region related to the BRI in internationalized education. It hopes its students will broaden their international vision, enhance their international understanding and improve their ability in cross-cultural communication.

To become better involved in people-to-people exchanges related to the BRI, SFLS has developed more than 20 overseas tour routes, and has seven international sister schools in Germany, France and Spain.

Dong said the school will further innovate international cultural exchange programs in order to build a Chinese school with the ability to hold dialogues, to understand and to compete internationally; and to cultivate confident, energetic and expressive students who have global competence and a deep understanding of both global and Chinese cultures.

SFLS is the first foreign language school to set up a multilingual training center to teach German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Arabic in Suzhou.