Nearly 600 people, including 353 overseas delegates from 66 countries or regions, will attend the World Chinese Conference to be opened in Beijing Wednesday.

Among the overseas delegates, 122 come from Asia, 96 from Europe, 95 from America, 20 from Oceania and 20 from Africa. Thai Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn and Mulatu Teshome, speaker of Ethiopian House of the Federation are expected to attend relevant activities as VIPs, according Ma Jianfei, deputy director of the National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (NOTCFL).

"It is the first international conference on Chinese language ever held in China. The conference aims to solicit opinions of officials on university presidents on Chinese teaching around the world," Ma said.

Attendants will concentrate on the subjects of "multi-cultural incorporation and needs for Chinese," the "Chinese teaching operational mechanism in the new era," and the "development prospect of international second languages" during the three-day conference.

The demand for learning Chinese as a second language is soaring all over the world. In 2004, among the 110,000 foreign students studying in China, 75,000 came to learn Chinese, according to NOTCFL.  
 
(Xinhua News Agency July 19, 2005)