Peking University, Beijing, June 9, 2010: The opening ceremony of the eighth aid meeting of the “China-Africa Universities 20+20 Cooperation Plan,” held by the Ministry of Education (MOE), took place in Guangzhou from June 1 to 2. “The PKU-Cairo University of Egypt (CU) One-to-one Cooperation Project” was chosen to take part of the plan after the assessment of experts.

Hao Ping, Vice Minister of Education, attended the ceremony and delivered a key-note speech. He said in the report that, in order to carry out the Sharm El Sheikh Action Plan passed by the 4th Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the MOE will start the “China-Africa Universities 20+20 Cooperation Plan” to support the twenty pairs of universities, including the leading universities as PKU and CU. Chinese universities will strengthen one-to-one cooperation with those of Africa, integrate the resources of the Chinese government and society, and provide training in human resources, scholarships to the government, training in Chinese, and so on for African universities to promote the aid in education for foreign countries.

Prof. Li Yansong, Vice President of PKU, introduced the strong basis and great strength of PKU African Studies and the general condition of the communication between PKU and other universities of Africa to the delegates at the ceremony. He said that in the future PKU will strengthen the support for African Studies and increase the exchange activities with African universities.

As the main institute of cooperation, PKU African Studies Center, along with the Office of International Relations, School of International Studies, School of Foreign Language and other related schools and departments, will promote African research together.

Translated by: Cao Yixing

Edited by: Jennifer Yan

Source: PKU News (Chinese)