The role of the Chinese language was highlighted on Thursday as the 14th United Nations Chinese Language Day was marked in the Nepali capital.

Chairman of Nepal Language Commission Gopal Thakur said on the occasion that the Chinese language is now one of the languages of employment among the Nepalese.

Since 2010, the United Nations has marked Chinese Language Day on April 20 over the language's contribution to the world while encouraging more people to learn it.

This year's celebrations were hosted by the Confucius Institute at Tribhuvan University under the theme of "Chinese Language: Facilitating Dialogues Across Civilizations."

Speaking on the occasion, Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Chen Song referred to the fact that the Chinese language has been learned and used by nearly 200 million people across the world, thus becoming an important medium for the Chinese and other civilizations to communicate with and learn from each other.

Chen voiced readiness to deepen civilization dialogues and exchanges with Nepal under the Global Civilization Initiative, so as to inject new impetus into bilateral friendship.

China welcomes Nepal to share the dividends of China's high-quality development, and is ready to synergize each other's development strategies, advance cooperation on infrastructure, border points, new energy and other areas, and expand people-to-people exchanges to paint a beautiful picture of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, the ambassador said.

Sun Zhanxue, president of East China University of Technology, and Wang Gang, vice president of Qinghai Minzu University, which are cooperating with Tribhuvan University on the operation of the Confucius Institute, both stressed the role of languages in promoting dialogues among civilizations.

Dances, recitals of Chinese poems, tea art and Chinese calligraphy were performed on the occasion.