Mrs. Madhulika Sen, Principal of Tagore International School,

Ms. Wang Liping, Principal of Jinyuan Senior High School,

Distinguished guests,

Students,

I am very happy to be here to participate this inauguration ceremony of videoconferencing between Tagore International School and Jinyuan Senior High School of Shanghai. I think this is a very meaningful project, and hope it will contribute to the promotion of friendship, exchange and cooperation of two schools.

Thanks to the information technology, the world today has become a global village. The videoconferencing we are having today is making teachers and students thousands of kilometers away speak to each other face to face. In the history, in spite of difficulties in communication, our two countries and the two peoples maintained frequent exchanges. After conquering numerous obstacles and difficulties, two Indian Buddhist gurus went to Luoyang , the capital of Han Dynasty 1940 years ago. They brought the first batch of Buddhist scriptures and Buddha's Statue to China. They were warmly welcomed by the Chinese Emperor. More than 1300 years ago, Chinese Monk Xuanzang came to learn Buddhism in Nalanda. His book on India has become an invaluable treasure to study the history of India. Mr. Rabindranath Tagore, great poet and Nobel laureate, Prof. Ji Xianlin, and many other famous Chinese scholars also made their contributions to promoting the understanding of two countries. The exchanges in history and in modern times between our two great civilizations had benefited our two peoples. Today we are having modern means of communication unimaginable in the past, we should make full use of it to further promote our mutual understanding and friendship.

The friendship between China and India depends on the friendship between our two peoples and it must start from young generations. You represent hope and future of our two countries. You are the goodwill ambassadors of our two countries. By joining hands together and learning from each other, you can not only enrich yourselves, but also bring a bright future for our two countries.

As the motto of Tagore International School goes, "I am worthy", I believe students from both China and India, will prove yourselves worthy to your respective countries.

Thank you.