The growing Chinese presence in Egypt and the Arabian region has greatly boosted the demand for learning the Chinese language, which gives impetus to the development of the Confucius Institutes, says Rehab Sobh, director of the institute at Cairo University.

"We hope to build the Confucius Institute at Cairo University into the best Confucius Institute in Egypt, as well as in all Arab regions, to cater to the growing demand," Sobh says.

During the visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Egypt in January, the two countries agreed to form an overall strategic partnership to bring more Chinese companies to Egypt, particularly in the Suez Canal area, she said.

At present, there are 14 Confucius Institutes in the region, including three in Morocco, one in Sudan, two in Jordan, one in Bahrain, one in Lebanon, two in the United Arab Emirates and one Confucius class in Tunisia.

With the growing influx of Chinese visitors, demand for Chinese language tour guides has grown rapidly. As evidence of support, Cairo University has allocated an area of 500 square meters on its campus to build a four-story education building for the Confucius Institute.

There are four Confucius Institutions at universities in Egypt, offering training in Chinese language, grammar, oral Chinese, listening comprehension and translation, she said.

Early this year, an Egypt-Japanese electronics joint venture approached the institute asking for assistance in training staff members in Chinese, indicating that market demand may be widening.

Sobh is confident in the future development of the institute, which was set up in 2007 as a result of collaboration between Cairo University and the School of Chinese as a Second Language at Peking University.

Every year, Cairo University and the Confucius Institute organize two to three trainings for teachers in teaching material translation and revisions. They hold various events and contests such as storytelling, Chinese calligraphy, singing, translation, photography and sitcom performance. This year in particular, the institute organized a composition and mini film contest in celebration of Confucius Institute Day which fell on Oct 11.

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