As the first visiting scholar of Qilu Visiting and Research Residency Program, Branko Balon, president of the Croatian-Chinese Friendship Society for Cultural, Scientific and Economic, professor of Computer Science, VSITE College for Information Technology, Zagreb, Croatia, has started his visiting and research residency in Confucius Research Institute since February 10.

Based on Shandong’s rich Confucian cultural resources, with the strong support of Shandong Publishing Group Limited, “Qilu Visiting and Research Residency Program” is jointly initiated by the Nishan World Center for Confucian Studies, China Confucius Foundation as well as Shandong University. The program builds a bridge for international cultural exchanges and cooperation. Internationally renowned scholars are invited to come to Shandong to conduct researches, focusing on the inheritance and development of classical civilization, carrying out academic cooperation with universities and think tanks at home and abroad, so as to jointly launch high-quality academic results that combine the past and the present and integrate the Chinese and foreign cultures.