27 Aug 2015

The Permanent Secretary to the President, Mr Carter Morupisi has urged 48 Batswana students destined to China to take their studies seriously and come back with good results.

Speaking at a farewell reception held in honour of 48 Batswana who have won Chinese Government Scholarship to study in China beginning next month, Mr Morupisi said all those who have won the scholarship should regard themselves lucky to have been picked out of thousands applicants.

He said they should go out there and represent the country in an acceptable manner to enable the good gesture to continue to be given to their brothers and sisters who would like to be part and parcel of the teams to come. Mr Morupisi said it was difficult for the government this time around to sponsor each and everybody for the different levels of education, as the country was struggling with funds to send students abroad hence the need to take the opportunity seriously.

For his part, the Acting Ambassador of China, Mr Li Nan said he was pleased to note that China increased the number of scholarships offered to Botswana from 22 last year to 48 this year, adding that those who managed to get the sponsorship went through a  rigorous process from more than 1 000 applicants.

He said they are truly representatives of young talents in Botswana and said their stay in China should bring a difference to the country after acquiring necessary skills. He said the sponsorship would be covering students for degrees from bachelor to PHD majoring in various subjects. 

He said while pursuing its own development, China has become one of the major economies in the world and an important contributor to world economic growth, adding that last year, China’s contribution to world economic growth rate accounted for nearly 30 per cent.

The Acting Ambassador said on imported goods, it reached nearly US$ 2 trillion, accounting for 10 per cent of the world. In the next five years, he added China is expected to import more than US$10 trillion of goods, invest over US$500 billion overseas and send 500 million tourists abroad.

“For sure China is ready to share this huge development opportunity and achieve mutual benefits with the rest of the world, including Botswana,” he said. Acting permanent secretary, in the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, Mr Leonard Mutheto thanked the Chinese government and urged the entire sponsorship recipients to represent the country well. Ends