The 1st World Chinese Conference opened in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday, attracting Chinese speakers from around the globe.

Li Changchun, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, told participants the government attached importance to the development of Chinese teaching overseas.

He said it will further increase investment to promote it, publish more Chinese textbooks, and nurture more teaching staff. "We will also facilitate the construction of Confucius Institutes in an effort to provide better services to Chinese language learners overseas."

"Chinese has become a real international language, and has shown great practical value," said Joel Bellassen, inspector-general of Chinese teaching for the French Ministry of Education.

According to him, when the last school year began in 2004, the number of secondary school students taking Chinese lessons increased by 22 percent in France. Some areas even witnessed 35 percent growth.

More than 30 million people outside China are learning the language, and about 2,500 overseas colleges in 100 countries offer courses.

"Our survey shows there already exists a strong interest in learning Chinese among high school students in the US," said Gaston Caperton, president of the US College Board.

In Canada, Chinese has become the third most widely spoken language after English and French, according to Joseph Caron, Canadian ambassador to China.

"China has an unshirkable responsibility toward language teaching overseas," said State Councilor Chen Zhili, addressing the opening of the conference.

With the development of Chinese in a multicultural world as its theme, the three-day conference has attracted 342 representatives from more than 70 countries, as well as 175 delegates from China.

It will discuss Chinese language development policies around the world, improvement of the Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) and theories on teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

(Xinhua News Agency, China Daily July 21, 2005)