The Chinese government has provided more than 1,450 scholarship opportunities to Ethiopians in various academic and training areas during the first eight months of 2018, Xinhua News Agency reported by citing the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia.
Some 1,232 short-term training sessions were provided to Ethiopians in China while some 220 other Ethiopian candidates from federal and regional government, academic institutions and industries have been admitted by major Chinese higher education institutions to study masters and PhD programs, the embassy said on Saturday.
Figures from the Ministry of Commerce of China also indicated that by the end of 2017, more than 5,650 Ethiopians have received training in different professions in China under the China-aid framework covering over 20 fields, including education, health and medical services, agriculture, tourism, manufacturing industries, public administration, business management, urban development and poverty reduction, according to figures from the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia.
Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia Tan Jian said late on Friday that China's support in the human development sector mainly aims to improve management skills and practical techniques for government officials, academic experts, senior managerial personnel and specialized technicians.
Tan, who vowed to deepen the two countries' ties in human resources development, said that "We developing countries have human resources potential in abundance and the thing is how to exploit this bonanza."
Since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, China has actively supported the development of African countries under the framework of the Forum.
According to China’s Foreign Aid (2014), a white paper published by the State Council, or China's cabinet, China trained a total of 47,000 people from various professions for African countries from 2010 to 2012, including over 5,000 agricultural technicians and over 3,000 medical staff.
In 2012, China initiated its African Talents Program, which vows to train 30,000 personnel in various sectors for Africa in three years and offer 18,000 government scholarships, said the paper. It added that 6,717 government scholarships had been offered in that year alone.
During the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in 2015, China announced the rolling out of 10 major programs to strengthen cooperation with Africa in the following three years.
One of them is the China-Africa industrialization program, in which China is committed to educating 200,000 African specialists and a quota of 40,000 trainees in China, according to Xinhua News Agency.
Xinhua also reported that the project allows for 200 African scholars to visit China and 500 African youth to research and study in China each year, and provides training for 1,000 African media practitioners each year.
(With input from Xinhua News Agency)
