Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Zhang Zuo (L), hands over a certificate to the winner of the "Chinese Bridge" competition in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on May 24, 2018. A Chinese language proficiency competition for university students was held here on Thursday to select a youngster to represent Bangladesh at the final Chinese Bridge competition. (Xinhua)

DHAKA, May 25 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese language proficiency competition for university students was held here on Thursday to select a youngster to represent Bangladesh at the final Chinese Bridge competition.

The Chinese embassy conducted the contest which was hosted by the Confucius Institute at North South University in association with the Dhaka University Confucius Institute and CRI-SMF Confucius Classroom.

The Chinese Bridge is an international Chinese culture and language proficiency program where Chinese language and culture students from institutions worldwide compete in various categories.

From a number of leading institutions including Dhaka University, CRI-SMF Confucius Classroom and North South University, students applied to attend the competition.

Nine of the applicants were selected through initial processes to join the competition held Thursday at the North South University in Dhaka.

The contestants competed in three segments featuring "Prepared Speech", "Chinese knowledge Quizz" and "Chinese Talent Show".

All the contestants were awarded prizes and certificates according to their individual results. Andeez Ziauddin, a female contestant from Confucius Institute at North South University, secured the first position in the competition and was selected to represent Bangladesh at the final competition to be held in China.

Zhang Zuo, the ambassador of China to Bangladesh, and Atique Islam, Vice-Chancellor of the North South University, among others, spoke at the cont competition ceremony. They later handed over the certificates and prizes to the winners.

Congratulating the champions, Zhang Zuo said, "I hope you will fetch good results for Bangladesh in the international Chinese Bridge finals and also hope that other contestants will make more efforts for better tomorrow."

"Through today's competition, I am very happy to see so many young people in Bangladesh are interested in Chinese and can speak fluent Chinese."

He also expressed the hope that students continue to learn more Chinese and become messengers of cultural exchanges between the two countries.