A group of Fijian and Chinese guests gathered at the China Cultural Center in Fiji to celebrate its fifth anniversary of establishment on Thursday.

Fiji's Minister for Education, Heritage and Arts Rosy Akbar, who witnessed the official inauguration of the center in 2015, extended her congratulations to the center, saying that she was lucky to witness the birth and fast growth of the center over the past five years.

"China Cultural Center in Fiji is like a home of friendship. It has built a bridge of friendship and mutual understanding for Fijians and Chinese. It has done a lot of meaningful activities and I hope it will continue to grow and continue to engage with our people in the years to come," she said.

For her part, Bernadette Rounds Ganilau, secretary of the Fiji-China Friendship Association, who has visited China and attended the center's activities for many times, told Xinhua that the key point of cultural exchange between countries like China and Fiji is respect, exchange and mutual learning. She was very glad that the center has helped promote the friendship between the two countries.

Chinese Ambassador to Fiji Qian Bo told Xinhua that the China Cultural Center in Fiji had done much to strengthen China-Fiji relations.

"Cultural exchange is vital for countries to further develop bilateral ties because mutual learning between different civilizations really helps promote people's mutual understanding and friendship between different countries," he said.

"As two countries with wonderful cultures, China and Fiji have respected and learned from each other over the past years. Both can take the advantage of the Belt and Road Initiative to deepen our cultural exchange which is part of the people-to-people exchange."

Sun Jie, director of the China Cultural Center in Fiji, told Xinhua that China and Fiji have set a good example of cultural exchange.

"Over the past five years, the China Cultural Center in Fiji has done everything possible such as exchange of visits, exhibitions and cultural performances to help enhance friendship and mutual understanding between our two peoples, and this has also helped strengthen the stable development of our bilateral ties."

"I believe that our two countries will have a lot to learn from each other's culture in the future," he said.