Personal resume

Qi Mingqiu has served in a comprehensive department in China’s macro-economic administration for 10 years，in state-owned enterprises as a leader for 18 years and in a people’s organization as a leader for 6 years. He holds double Bachelor’s degree in engineering and arts，and Master’s degree in engineering administration. He holds certificates of Senior Economist and Senior Engineer. Mr. Qi Mingqiu，on behalf of China Soong Ching Ling Foundation，signed the MOU between China Soong Ching Ling Foundation and Russian “Dialogue of Civilizations” World Public Forum in May，2016，which has been written into The Sino-Russian Joint Statement in 2016.

Respectable distinguished Guests，Ladies and Gentlemen，

Good afternoon！ First of all，please allow me to express my gratitude to the organizing committee for their invitation to this grand event. I would also like to send my sincere congratulations to the opening of the cultural-themed sub forum for the first time. My respect also goes to those people who have made their contributions to the holding of the forum.

President Xi has attached great importance upon ecological civilization，which should be integrated into all aspects and overall process of economic，political，cultural，social construction as he has pointed out. Holding of the themed subforum on “Great Cultural Activism in the New Era of Ecological Civilization”，which will focus on how to introduce “culture” into ecological civilization construction in order to promote better integration and interaction between culture and ecology，will be of great importance in carrying out our national strategy and construction of ecological civilization in the new era.

Eco-culture，as a part of human cultural accumulation，which is comprised of such cultural factors as specific ethnic or regional styles of life，production，religion，customs and ethics，is a cultural system with its own distinctive features and functions. It has been passed down over generations about how to take，use and protect ecological resources properly in order to promote harmonious coexistence between human beings and the nature and sustainable development. Eco-culture of every state，nation and region should be respected，understood and tolerated，which provides the basis for honest dialogue，mutual understanding and friendly cooperation in order to safeguard international peace and security.

Coexistence of multiple cultures is inevitable under the current international political and economic conditions，upon which the traditional Chinese culture advocates harmonious coexistence among different civilizations. Bo Yangfu，a thinker and philosopher at the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty，argued that all living things on earth will survive only when harmony is among diverse species achieved. On the contrary，nothing will survive if all the things enjoy no differences. In other words，coexistence of multiple cultures provides the basis for human development as what biodiversity is a footstone of balanced development of ecological system. Following Bo Yangfu，Confucius has taken “harmony in diversity” as the basic principle for people of moral integrity with his well-known saying “A gentleman gets along with others，but does not necessarily agree with them； while a person without moral integrity does the opposite.” And in modern China，we always believe we should be tolerant enough to promote harmonious coexistence of multiple cultures.

Since its founding in 1982，China Soong Ching Ling Foundation（CSCLF）has devoted to carrying out various cultural people-to-people exchange programs in order to promote better understanding among youth，women and children from different parts of the world，which advances harmonious coexistence of multiple cultures. Being an active non-governmental organization in the international arena，CSCLF has achieved a lot in organizing people-to-people exchange programs with diversified themes and forms through close collaboration with its dozens of partners across the world，which has won high evaluation by both domestic and international communities.

China Soong Ching Ling Foundation has been written into the Sino-Russian Joint Statement signed by the Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Putin，his visiting Russian counterpart in late June this year. Article 22 reads like this：China Soong Ching Ling Foundation and Russia “Dialogue of Civilizations” World Forum，an NGO，endorsed a MOU in Beijing，May，2016. Besides，other NGOs from both sides advocate taking Silk Road as a cultural bridge connecting the nations and peoples along the line. All of these joint activities will help accelerate cooperation between these NGOs in the mentioned areas and have embodied the resolution passed by the 7th UN Alliance of Civilizations International Forum held in Baku，the capital city of Azerbaijan，April of 2016.

The fact that the Foundation has been mentioned in the Sino-Russian Joint Statement shows that what the Foundation has done for world peace has received positive evaluation since the Foundation has made its working plan on the basis of serving our country in the new era of Sino-Russian Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership. And this fact will also encourage the Foundation to do better in promoting more constructive collaboration with its foreign partners in order to make more space for cultural diversities.

Besides Sino-Russian cultural people-to-people exchange programs，the Foundation has also devoted much to academic and youth exchanges with such other nations and regions as the United States，Europe，Asia and so on. In 2015，the Foundation collaborated with Yale University in holding the International Roundtable Conference on Climate Change with the theme of “Harmony，Cooperation，Development，Responsibility”，in which more than 30 scholars from 10 countries took part. Its findings and achievements have been highly evaluated by the concerning government departments.

In Europe，the Foundation has also strengthened its cooperation with such prestigious institutes as Mercator Foundation（Germany），Schiller Institute（Germany）and De Gaulle Foundation（France）. Recently，the Sino-Hungarian Cultural Event jointly held by the Foundation and the Hungarian Embassy in China has been put on the list of events for “China-Central and Eastern European Countries Cultural and People-to-People Exchange Year of 2016”.

In Asia，the Foundation held “China-India Friendship and Civilizational Exchange Roundtable Conference” with cooperation with India World Affairs Committee. The Foundation has played an active role in building Sino-Parkistan Economic Corridor under the frame of “One Belt，One Road” and taken part in the concerning events organized by the Pakistan Embassy in China. At present，a Sino-Pakistan Youth Peer-to-Peer Exchange program is being designed and planed. For the ASEAN countries，the Foundation will host 2016 “Soong Ching Ling” Youth Football Match，which has been included into the list of “Events to Commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Establishment of Dialogical Relations Between China and ASEAN”.

In addition，the Foundation has also kept close cooperation with the UN，as an NGO with Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC. An International Forum on Women collaborated with UNDP was held in Beijing last year.

For the second half of the year，a series of international cultural people-to-people exchange programs will be carried out among which the “World Youth Forum” which aims to promote better understanding and friendship among young people from the international communities.

Among the Foundation’s multiple partners，Guizhou province has always been one of the most important ones. The Guizhou provincial government has achieved much in ecological civilization construction and international people-to-people exchanges through introducing Chinese culture into the international communities and inviting people from all over the world to China. In doing this，Guizhou enjoys its own advantages in terms of ecology and culture. On the one hand，the natural conditions have been well preserved here in Guizhou. On the other hand，Guizhou is the hub of colorful ethnic and non-material cultural heritages. These conditions give Guizhou unique advantages in promoting harmonious coexistence of multiple cultures and people-to-people exchanges. What I have been thinking about is how to have more foreign friends come to Guizhou and bring Guizhou into the international arena through cooperation between Guizhou and the Foundation and better preservation of the natural and cultural resources.

In this respect，we have achieved much in collaboration between Guizhou and the Foundation in the areas of people-to-people exchanges and philanthropic programs. I would like to share a project with everyone here，which aims to preserve and publicize Miao Embroidery from Guizhou and has been carried out for 5 consecutive years. An Exhibit of Miao Embroidery was held in Paris，France during the Paris Fashion Week in October，2014，which has been put on the list of “Key Events to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations Between China and France” and drawn great attention from both sides. At present，we have a further plan to move this project to the UN headquarter in the United States in October this year. In the future，we will conduct all-round cooperation with Guizhou in fields including culture exchange，public charities，academic conference，and art exhibition.

In the field of culture exchange，Guizhou will become an ideal platform of our international cooperation and exchange programs for our three focusing groups，which are youth，women，and children. And we hope more international friends，especially foreign youth will come to Guizhou in the form of “peer-to-peer”exchange accompanied with Chinese counterparts. By conducting such activities，we wish our international friends will know more about Guizhou people，its local folklore and its traditional culture，and then deepen their understanding about Chinese culture and promote the friendship with Chinese people.

In terms of academic conference，we will continue our cooperation with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences，and our Houhai Institute will focus on the field of ecological civilization and economic development. We will also work with Guizhou to set up international forums with different themes，in which we will invite scholars and professors all over the world to take in-depth discussion on related topic.

In the field of art exhibition，the newly-built China Soong Ching Ling Science and Culture Center will be our base for Guizhou ethnic minorities’art communication，art exhibition and personnel training in order to achieve complementary cooperation of the two parties. We firmly believe that we have huge potential and bright prospects for future cooperation with Guizhou，in the aspects of promoting Guizhou’s socioeconomic development and developing the new era of ecological civilization with culture elements.

Ladies and gentlemen，dear friends，China Soong Ching Ling Foundation will spare no efforts in promote friendship，understanding and cooperation by making better use of our own advantages as a power to advance harmonious coexistence and world peace. At the same time，we hope to show the Chinese people’s love for peace，friendliness，wish to inherit traditional culture and advance civilization to the whole world through our closer cooperation in carrying forward ecological culture，guiding actions by NGOs and the public.

To end my speech，I would like to wish a complete success of the forum and ecological civilization construction in Guizhou.

Thank you.