Hanban provides a grant for the establishment of the Confucius Institute for Business London

Project narrative

In December 2005, the idea for a Confucius Institute for Business London was reached during a meeting between the Minister of Education, Zhou Ji, and Chairman of the HSBC Bank, Mr. Bond. On April 6th, 2006, a signing ceremony for the establishment of the Confucius Institute for Business London at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) was held at the UK Department of Education and Training. As part of the agreement, Hanban is obligated to provide volumes of teaching materials, up to £50,000 GBP annually to cover outstanding indirect costs, and numbers of Chinese instructors. The funds are dispersed through a local Bank of China account or other approved bank account created by the institute. The agreement has a 5-year validity and automatically renews at the end of every 5-year term. The institute was sponsored by HSBC Group, BP, Swire Pacific, Deloitte, and Standard Chartered Bank. In 2006, each company provided a one-off payment of £25,000 GBP to cover the institute's start-up costs. It's also supported by Hanban, the Ministry of Education, and the Chinese Embassy in the UK, with Hanban being the main financier. In 2019, Hanban was projected to provide approximately £150,000 GBP in funding. On September 16, 2009, an additional implementation agreement was signed between LSE and Tsinghua University, the partner university, requiring Tsinghua to dispatch at least three instructors to the institute annually, provide teaching materials, and set up a Beijing office for the institute. On October 25, 2006, the institute was officially inaugurated. The Confucius Institute for Business London is the first Business Confucius Institute in the world. The 5 companies that helped found the institute sit on the institute's "advisory council", providing advice and assistance to the institute's operations. As of 2019, PwC, The CityUK, the China Britain Business Council, and DL Piper have all joined the council. The institute also sees a high level of cooperation with HSBC, with a classroom in HSBC's headquarters, a "Chinese Corner" on the headquarter's 42nd floor. The institute also has a classroom at the Norton Rose International Law Firm. The Confucius Institute for Business London oversaw the following Confucius Classroom: - ID#90559: Confucius Classroom at Dulwich College