Tunisia signed a four-year implementation plan recently with China to promote cultural cooperation in areas such as cinema and cultural digitalization.
"Tunisia will work in cooperation with China to organize the first Chinese-Tunisian film festival," says Tunisian Culture Minister Hayet Guermazi during the signing ceremony of the Tunisia-China Cultural Cooperation Protocol 2021-2024 Executive Program.
Guermazi says there are several other projects planned in partnership with China, including theatric art, archaeology and translation.
"Culture is the foundation of any tie, whether it is political, social, economic or even strategic," the minister says during the ceremony, with the attendance of the Chinese Ambassador to Tunisia, Zhang Jianguo.
The protocol "will help us, together, to promote Tunisian-Chinese cooperation in the cultural field to generalize to other sectors," she says.
For his part, Zhang says both China and Tunisia have a long history and brilliant civilizations, and the record of friendly bilateral exchanges could date back to the ancient Carthage in the Phoenician period.
The Chinese ambassador says despite the difficulties posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the past year has seen both sides participate in each other's cultural events, including those on the Chinese New Year celebration, book publication, cinematic art and theater.
He believes the new program will safeguard the cultural cooperation between China and Tunisia in the near future.
