On Dec. 12^th, the 12th Confucius Institute Conference was inaugurated in Xi'an，Shanxi Province. Nearly 2500 representatives, including university presidents, representatives from Confucius Institutes in over 140 countries, diplomatic envoys, representatives from other national language and culture promotion agencies, and representatives from education sector in China, attended the meeting.

Directors’ Forums and Presidents’ Forums were organized at the conference in addition to the sessions following the opening and closing ceremonies. On Dec. 13^th, JIANG Bo, Vice President of Tongji University, presided over the Presidents’ Forum entitled ‘Demand-oriented Development Strategies for Confucius Institutes’ and made a keynote speech on ‘Confucius Institutes with a Big Role to Play in New Era’. In his speech, JIANG noted that the Confucius Institutes had huge potential to become prominent actors in the new period of China's development. With a bright prospect for development, the Confucius Institutes are expected to hold on to opportunities, take the initiative to play a more important role in international communications, and gear themselves to the needs of new development in a responsive and proactive manner. Meanwhile, university presidents from West India University in Barbados, India, University of London, the U.K., Binghamton University in New York State, University of South Carolina and South Carolina, USA elaborated on their understanding of the ‘needs of new development’ from the perspective of their own university and shared their plans for the development of the Confucius Institute with marked characteristics.