President Türk receives Chinese Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu

Ljubljana, 27.8.2009  |  press release

The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Danilo Türk, today received the Vice-Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Hui Liangyu, who, accompanied by a sizeable business delegation, is currently on an official visit to the Republic of Slovenia.

Their talks focused mainly on the implementation of agreements concluded between the Slovenian President and senior representatives of the Chinese authorities during the state visit of Dr Türk to the People’s Republic of China in October last year. During his visit, Dr Türk met with the President of the People’s Republic of China, Hu Jintao, and the Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Wen Jiabao. Mr Hui brought Dr Türk greetings from both the president and the premier, and outlined the main features of the implementation of the mentioned agreements, which also refer to today’s visit of the Chinese Government and business delegation to Slovenia.

Dr Türk and Mr Hui also discussed Slovenia’s potential as an important country of transit in Europe. In addition to the Port of Koper, Dr Türk highlighted the importance of Ljubljana Jo¾e Puènik Airport and the modernisation of railway infrastructure. Transport routes are of vital importance for enhancing economic co-operation between the two countries, especially in light of increasingly heavy traffic flows in Europe.

Dr Türk and Mr Hui also devoted significant attention to cultural co-operation. In this regard, the progress in establishing the Confucius Institute in Slovenia and in opening the Lectureship on the Slovene language in China is particularly encouraging. During his visit to China, Dr Türk advocated support for promoting the learning of Slovene in China, while the Chinese representatives expressed an interest in supporting the promotion of the Chinese culture and language in Slovenia.