ZAGREB, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- As a sign of enhanced bilateral cooperation, the Chinese Embassy in Croatia signed on Tuesday Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with Zagreb-based Academy of Fine Arts and the Croatian Tennis Table Association.
Tomislav Buntak, dean of the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese embassy.
"For us, this is the first step in mutual exchange. It is especially important since China has such a long cultural tradition. We want to see how they have related a traditional and modern culture and maybe find a way for some joint projects," Buntak told Xinhua. He stressed that thanks to the new agreement, Croatian students will have a chance to get scholarships in China.
"Croatia is very famous for its art and we hope that we can learn from each other in order to have a more solid basis for the future cooperation, not only economic but to promote more people-to-people exchanges", Chinese Ambassador to Croatia Hu Zhaoming told Xinhua.
For the Croatian Tennis Table Association, the Memorandum of Understanding with the Chinese Embassy is a historic one. The new cooperation will include not only Chinese financial support to the association, but the exchange of players and coaches.
"This is a great contract for Croatia. China is the world's No. 1 in table tennis and now their coaches and players will come here and help us," Zlatko Pospis, president of the Croatian Tennis Table Association said after the signing of the MOU.
"We can learn from each other," Hu said.
He stressed the importance of cooperation and said that Croatia can use Chinese knowledge in swimming, gymnastics or badminton, while China can learn from Croatia when it comes to football, basketball or handball.
