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The President of International Olympic Academy, Isidoros Kouvelos, and the President of China Media Group, Xaixiong Shen signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the promotion of Olympic values in China. 

The signing ceremony took place at the Chinese Embassy in Athens on October 28th, in the presence of the Ambassador of China to Greece, Junzheng Xiao.

The IOA delegation consisted of the newly appointed IOA Director, Makis Asimakopoulos, IOA Dean, Konstantinos Georgiadis, Chief Legal Advisor, Mihalis Anastasopoulos, Senior Advisor to the President, Dionyssis Gangas, and Head of Corporate Communications and Partnerships, Stella Tachtara.

During the meeting, the two Presidents expressed their enthusiasm for the beginning of this new journey towards the dissemination of Olympism and further discussed the future opportunities that arise. 

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The MoU lays the foundations for a close cooperation between the IOA and CMG, and indicatively involves: the creation of Olympic Education Programmes for the Chinese Youth and CMG executives, joint online and offline activities for the celebration of Olympic milestones, exchange of knowledge and good practices, media production, and other educational, sports and cultural initiatives.

A day before his visit to Greece, Mr Shen had met with the IOC President, Thomas Bach at the Olympic House in Lausanne, where they signed an MoU between IOC and CMG. Mr Shen informed the IOC President about the imminent MoU signing with the IOA, news that was met with great enthusiasm by President Bach, who had encouraged this cooperation some time ago. 

The Prime Minister and the Greek government, through the Deputy Minister of Sports, Yiannis Vroutsis, also congratulated and praised both the IOA and CMG for the commencement of this new partnership which will strengthen the dissemination of Olympic Values in Chinese society.