Danish Prime Minister visits SDC and Carlsberg in China

When Danish Prime Minister, Mrs. Helle Thorning-Schmidt, arrived in Beijing Monday 10 September, 2012, she held an opening speech for the new students at Sino-Danish Center (SDC), joined several bilateral meetings and the celebration of Danish company Carlsberg’s 150 year anniversary in China.

During the day, the Prime Minister had a bilateral meeting with Vice Premier Wang Qishan. Among others Wang Qishan showed Helle Thorning-Schmidt a Chinese painting and told her, that he would like to see many more bilateral meetings between Denmark and China. During his presentation of the Chinese painting, Wang Qishan said to the accompanying business delegation that it is necessary that they come to China frequently if they want to understand Chinese culture and interpret the subtle details that a Chinese landscape can have.

SDC students are pioneers

Sino-Danish Center (SDC) launces their first master programmes at UCAS this week. The master programmes are the first of its kind with a mixture of Danish and Chinese students and focus on both Denmark and China in the programmes. The Danish Prime Minister attended the opening where she held a speech that underlined that the students have made a clever and forward-looking choice by studying at SDC:

“High quality education gives our young generation, including all of you SDC-students, the strongest opportunities to prosper in society. Education remains critically important as we are continuously striving to boost our international competitiveness. Access to well-educated employees simply makes it more attractive to invest and create jobs in both China and Denmark. I find it particularly encouraging to see how the co-operation between China and Denmark is currently expanding. You are – all you new students of SDC – the epitome of this cooperation.”

Celebration of a long standing friendship

By the end of the day, the Prime Minister held a speech at Carlsberg’s celebration of their 150 year anniversary in China. The Danish Embassy hosted the event, and several representatives from the Chinese ministries and organisations, including the AQSIQ, CNCA, MoA, and China Green Food Development Center attended. Carlsberg was one of the first international breweries to commence exporting beer to China and has established and retained production – initially in Hong Kong and then in China. Today Carlsberg has 41 breweries with a total of over 7.000 employees working in 7 provinces, and has become a symbol of the long and great friendship between China and Denmark. The Prime Minister ended the day by having a meeting with a row of Chinese investors.

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