On the afternoon of 26th January, a video conference was held between CUZ and Accademia di Belle Arti di Lecce Italy, in which CUZ Vice President Wei Lu and President Nunzio Fiore of Accademia di Belle Arti di Lecce Italy attended and signed the co-operation agreement between the two universities. Liu Zun, President of China-Italy A Touch of Culture Exchange Association, Zhou Wenqiang, Executive President and heads of International Offices of both sides attended the conference.

Wei Lu introduced the characteristics and construction development of CUZ. He said that CUZ attaches great importance to the cooperation with Italian colleges and universities, and hoped that through the cooperation with Accademia di Belle Arti di Lecce Italy, the two sides can establish a closer relationship. Accademia di Belle Arti di Lecce Italy has a long history of running schools and has cultivated a large number of excellent talents. He expects the two schools to promote in-depth co-operation in culture, education, social services and other aspects, and to promote exchanges between teachers and students, academic research, and jointly contribute to the enhancement of global sustainable development and human well-being.

Nunzio Fiore said that the two schools have outstanding professional characteristics, and the signing of the cooperation agreement will play a very important role in the cooperation between the two schools in the field of art and other areas, and will also bring the friendly relations between China and Italy closer, and the two sides can carry out in-depth co-operation in the areas of culture, art, history and so on.

At the end of the video conference, the presidents of the two sides signed the Memorandum of Cooperation between CUZ and Accademia di Belle Arti di Lecce Italy and the Agreement on the Intention of Co-operation between CUZ and Accademia di Belle Arti di Lecce Italy in Organising Confucius Institute.

Founded in 1960, Accademia di Belle Arti di Lecce is located in a 400-year-old Baroque building in the ancient city of Lecce in Puglia, Italy, and is one of the eight national art schools in Italy. The school has 10 undergraduate programmes in Visual Arts, Design and Applied Arts, Decoration, Sculpture, Painting and Printmaking, and 8 Master's programmes in Print Communication, Film and Television Stage Art.