Confucius Institute at the Kathmandu University (CIKU) celebrated here its 5th anniversary amid a special program on Monday.

The program with various presentations reflecting the Chinese culture performed by Nepali students of CIKU.

Addressing the function, Minister for Education Dinanath Sharma congratulated the Institute for its successful operation after its establishment in 2007 while shedding light on the various aspects of significance the institute has maintained in developing a people-people relations between Nepal and China.

He also expressed his regards towards the institution for developing a strong foundation for cultural exchange between the two neighboring countries and also benefiting more than 4000 Nepali students by developing their Chinese language skills.

Likewise, Vice-Chancellor of Kathmandu Univeristy (KCU) Suresh Rai Sharma highlighted the importance of Confucius in the Asian civilization.

"CIKU has made great efforts by trying to animate the philosophies and wisdom of Confucius through their commitment to spread it amongst the people through communication," Sharma said.

Vice-President of Hebei University of Economics and Business Chen Liang spoke about the history of CIKU in Nepal.

Stating that CIKU has been playing an essential role in cultural exchanges and people to people relations by bridging the language barrier, Liang said that Nepalese people have been showing immense enthusiasm to learn the language as a result of which Chinese language has been included in the curriculum of many colleges in Nepal.

Ambassador of China to Nepal Yang Houlan said that CIKU has set up a bridge of language, culture and friendship between the people of two countries.

"Learning Chinese language is the most direct and effective way to know more about the modern China and the CI provides the medium of mutual communication and understanding," Houlan said.

Similarly on July 12, Nepal's Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai congratulated CIKU for its 5th anniversary, saying that "the institute has been tremendously contributing in promoting cultural relations between our two ancient civilizations."

CIKU, which was established in June 2007, is a joint collaboration of China's Hebei University of Economics and business and Nepal's Kathmandu University.

Over the past five years, CIKU has provided Nepalese with the teaching resource and service about Chinese language and culture to meet the Nepalese demand for Chinese language learning.

More than 4000 students from different levels have benefited from the CIKU course.

Likewise in 2011, 18 Nepali students who scored best in Chinese Proficiency Test were given scholarship to study in China.

Becoming a next destination for Nepal for business and study purposes, China has more and more Nepalese people studying Chinese language to explore every arena of opportunities.

Saput Shrestha, a student at CIKU, told Xinhua that he joined the CIKU to learn Chinese language to benefit from its booming global strength.

"There are two reasons why I joined CIKU. I want to do business in the future and also if I get a scholarship I would want to go to China and study. Besides, even if I go to other countries, having the benefit of speaking Chinese can bring many opportunities for me," Shrestha said.

Shrestha who is a student of Computer Science and Information Technology said that he wants to utilize his educational qualification along with his background of business skills to help Nepal develop in terms of information and technology.