Good morning ladies and gentlemen!
        Thank you so much for attending this conference.

        It is an honor and an important duty for me to participate with you in this unique undertaking, the International Conference of Institutes and Libraries for Overseas Chinese Studies.

        I am glad to see that around 50 representatives from research centers, library collections, academic societies, university programs, and museums in 10 countries and areas have come to this conference with a high interest in overseas Chinese studies. Your papers and reports have provided a solid ground for this conference to explore prospect of the institutional cooperation in this rapidly growing academic field.  This conference will truly be a gathering for scholarly exchange and international cooperation.

        I sincerely hope that this conference will not only be the beginning of our worldwide institutional cooperation but also an important step to setting a strategic agenda for close cooperation and coordination in the 21st century.  On behalf of the Shao Center, I would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to international cooperation for the advancement of Overseas Chinese studies.  I am also looking forward to specific commitments from all attendees to this joint effort and to the goodwill of all of you to produce tangible progress by the time we adjourn on Saturday. The conference should be a new chapter in international cooperation for Overseas Chinese studies

        Finally, I would like to thank President Glidden and Dean Zimmerman for their tremendous support of this conference and to all of you for your presence here at this historical moment in the development of overseas Chinese studies. I wish great success for the conference. Thank you.