NOVI SAD, Serbia, May 27 -- The second Confucius Institute in Serbia opened at the University of Novi Sad on Monday with a cultural program and the presence of Serbian and Chinese officials, professors and students.

The opening ceremony on Tuesday was attended by a delegation from the Chinese province of Zhejiang, representatives of the Chinese embassy to Serbia, government officials of Serbian province of Vojvodina, as well as professors, lecturers and students.

Confucius Institute in Novi Sad will function as a cultural centre and will in future implement series of activities dealing with Chinese language, culture and economy at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Novi Sad, which is the foreign partner of the Confucius Institute. The Chinese partner is Zhejiang A & F University (ZAFU).

This is the second Confucius Institute in Serbia, after the first one in its capital Belgrade opened in 2006.

President of the ZAFU Zhou Guomo said that the cooperation between two universities aims to enhance Chinese language studies in Serbia, promote Chinese culture and promote further relations between two countries.

"China and Serbia have very good relations for a long time. We hope that we can develop our relations further by establishing Confucius Institute at the Novi Sad University,"said Zhou.

Dean of the University of Novi Sad Miroslav Veskovic said that the ZAFU is the fourth Chinese university that they started cooperation in a larger aim to internationalize their work.

"Confucius Institute will be open to students as well as all people that want to get to know Chinese culture," said Ivana Zivancevic Sekerus, dean of the Faculty of Philosophy.