Chinese has been recognized as one of the official languages in the International Dental Federation (FDI), according to a visiting FDI official in Shanghai Sunday.

Sato Dr. Ratnanesan, president of FDI, said during his first visit to the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) that a joint effort made by dental associations in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan has successfully promoted Chinese to the same status of five other languages, including English, French, Germany, Japanese and Spanish, as FDI's official languages.

This would help pave the way to elevating the reputation of Beijing's role in hosting the FDI conference in 2006, said Ratnanesan.

With a membership of over 130 countries and regions and 750,000dentists around the world, FDI is the world's most prestigious organization in the dental science. Macao became a member of FDI five years ago.

Ratnanesan will visit Macao's dental medical facilities and meet Macao SAR officials during his three-day visit.

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2003)