22 Aug 2013

Ambassador Zheng Zhuqiang of China says the Chinese government attaches great importance to the cooperation with African countries on human resource development.

Speaking during a farewell reception he hosted for Batswana students, who have been offered Chinese scholarships on Tuesday, Mr Zhuqiang noted that in today’s world, education played a more important role in economic and social development. He said, without the improvement and progress of the human resources, nation building and development would be difficult or even impossible.

Ambassador Zhuqiang said at the fifth Ministerial Conference of Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2012, the Chinese government announced that it would continue to provide training to 30 000 personnel in various fields for Africa, offer 18 000 government scholarships and build cultural and vocational skills training facilities in African countries from 2012 to 2015.

Regarding assistance to Botswana’s human development, he said, China started to offer government scholarships and training opportunities to Botswana in 1980s. He noted that up to now more than 200 Batswana students had studied in China under the Chinese Government Scholarship Programme and more than 500 personnel were trained in various areas.

Each year, he said, China provided about 60 government scholarships for Botswana students and this had greatly made contributions to the social and economic development of Botswana.

This year, Botswana students were awarded full Chinese Government Scholarships for Bachelor’s degrees to PhD, and their majors would be in various subjects such as clinical medicine, psychology, enterprise management, business management, international trade, mining engineering and arts amongst others.  

For her part, Political and Educational Officer at Chinese Embassy, Ms Lin Bing said the 22 China bound students will leave this month end as they are expected to start their courses early September in various universities across China.  The students were earlier on orientated on what to expect when they reach China. ENDS