Macao SAR releases initiative to promote mutual learning among civilizations

The International Forum on Mutual Learning Among Civilizations 2025 released an initiative on Wednesday to promote mutual understanding among civilizations. 

The conference took place in the Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) from December 16 to 17.

Here is the full text of the initiative: 

The First International Forum on Mutual Learning among Civilizations

Mutual Learning among Civilizations and Inheritance through Innovation: The Macao Initiative

On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Historic Centre of Macao being inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, we gather in Macao, a historic city that integrates Chinese and Western civilizations and carries shared memories, to jointly explore the contemporary themes of mutual learning among civilizations and inheritance through innovation. In order to address global challenges together and promote world peace and development, dialogue, mutual learning, and cooperation among different civilizations must be further deepened. To this end, we propose the following:

I. Upholding a Global Perspective to Promote Dialogue among Civilizations and Experience Sharing. We advocate examining the diverse civilizations created by human societies within the broader garden of world civilizations, and promoting cross-civilizational research and cooperation based on the principles of mutual respect and equality. By summarizing diverse governance experiences and development wisdom, we aim to contribute intellectual resources from multiple civilizations to the preservation of civilizational diversity and the advancement of world peace and development, and to help build a community with a shared future for mankind.

II. Championing Openness and Inclusiveness to Deepen Mutual Learning and People-to-People Exchange. We encourage making full use of Macao's advantage as a "landmark for dialogues among civilizations," and building it into a platform for exchange and cooperation where Chinese culture serves as the mainstay and diverse cultures coexist. We support scholars and cultural practitioners from all countries in engaging in candid and in-depth exchanges here, and in enhancing understanding and friendship among civilizations through multiple channels such as education, academia, media, tourism, and the arts.

III. Cherishing Cultural Heritage and Integrating Traditional Wisdom with Modern Development. We advocate strengthening the scientific protection, living transmission, and innovative utilization of various forms of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Taking the valuable experience of harmonious coexistence of civilizations embodied in the Historic Centre of Macao as a new starting point, we seek to deeply explore the contemporary value of the historical cultures of all countries, and to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of outstanding traditional cultures in the process of modernization.

IV. Focusing on Intergenerational Transmission to Support Youth Development and Digital Innovation. We call for nurturing young people to become inheritors and innovators of mutual learning among civilizations, and for building an inclusive, collaborative, and future-oriented academic and cultural community. We encourage youth to leverage new technologies such as digitalization and intelligent applications to expand new pathways for civilizational research, communication, and experience, and to promote the sharing of international resources and knowledge, thereby providing more opportunities for young people to participate in global people-to-people exchanges.

V. Jointly Building Platforms for Dialogue among Civilizations and Advancing the Global Civilization Initiative. We propose developing the International Forum on Mutual Learning among Civilizations into an open, high-level global platform for dialogue and cooperation among civilizations, continuously promoting mutual understanding and affinity among peoples and advancing exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. Macao should continue to leverage its unique role as a bridge linking China and the world and connecting East and West, contributing to the global outreach of Chinese culture and to the shared prosperity of cultures worldwide.

With Macao as a link, cultural heritage as a testament, and dialogue as a bridge, we are willing to jointly promote mutual appreciation, harmonious coexistence, and win-win cooperation among different civilizations and to create together a more inclusive, peaceful, and sustainable world with friends from all sectors around the world.