Established in 1991 to promote and teach the Spanish language and to disseminate Spanish and Latin American culture, the Instituto Cervantes boasts 44 centres in a range of countries throughout Europe, Asia, America and Africa. Supporting the work of hispanists, launching activities to disseminate culture in collaboration with other Spanish and Latin American organisations and with organisations from the host country, and providing public libraries with state-of-the-art technologies all figure amongst its main objectives. For the 2003-2004 academic year, it organised 4.000 cultural events such as conferences, colloquiums, concerts and exhibitions. The number of students registered for Spanish and teacher training for that same year reached 93,000. Apart from its Institutes, it also has a sister organisation called the Aula Cervantes, which consists of resource centres for self-access Spanish studies in universities and other centres in countries such as Bulgaria, Hungary, Vietnam and Croatia.