Norwegian Minister of Culture and Church Affairs Mr. Trond Giske visited Beijing Olympics from August 19 to 25. Besides going to watch various games and cheering for Norwegian athletes, Minister Giske had pleasant meetings with Ministry of Culture, State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) and State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA).
Cultural exchange
During the meeting with China's Minister of Culture Mr. Cai Wu, Minister Giske congratulated on the outstanding performance Chinese athletes achieved during the Olympics and highly praised the excellent organization of the games. ”I'm very impressed”, Minister Giske said.
There is significant cultural exchange between Norway and China, especially in the year of Ibsen in 2006 and the year of Grieg in 2007. Now both countries would like to further the exchange to more areas such as literature, music, film, digital new media and cultural heritage preservation. Minister Giske invited Minister Cai Wu to visit Norway at his convenience.
Common ground
In the meeting with SARFT, both countries shared practices of development of the mass media sector in digitization, regulation and intellectual property rights, and agreed to exchange more on cultural practitioners, not only artists. In the meeting with SARA, both shared the structure of dialogue between the government and the religious organizations and found common understanding ground on the trends, changes and challenges on religious landscape in both countries.
Minister Giske also paid a visit to National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA). He was impressed by the grand architecture, the acoustically well equipped individual hall and educational facilities. Before leaving, the Minister left his fond impression on NCPA's guestbook.