SPEECH - TALK BY HIS EXCELLENCY Mr He Yafei, Vice Minister of the Overseas Chinese Affairs office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China
WEDNESDAY 22 OCTOBER 2014
H.E
Mr He Yafei, Vice Minister of the Overseas Chinese
Affairs
office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China,
H.E
Mr. Li Li, Ambassador of the People’s
Republic of China,
The
Vice Chancellor, University of Mauritius,
Academic
staff and students,
It
is our great privilege to welcome H.E Mr He Yafei, Vice-Minister from
the People’s Republic of China. I would like to thank your Excellency for
having kindly agreed to be present here and give a talk on Sino African Relations.
Mauritius
and China established diplomatic relations in 1972 and share a unique relationship with several cooperation
agreements in economic, cultural, trade fields and a Sino-Mauritian Joint
Commission on Economic, Technical and Trade Cooperation, which meets on regular
basis. Major projects such as
the Airport Terminal Building, Belle Vue Stadium, bridges, houses, Recreation
Center for Senior Citizens among others have been implemented with the support
of the Government of China.
In the field of education, China has been
providing scholarships to Mauritian students for many years thus contributing
to building of capacity and skills in many fields. Last year there were 406
Mauritian students pursuing higher education in China, out of whom 39 were
beneficiaries of scholarships offered by the Chinese government.
As the Government of
Mauritius is focusing on higher education and knowledge creation as the driver
of growth in the next decade, we hope to develop greater collaboration in the
fields of higher education, science, technology and research with Chinese
higher education institutions.
In fact, the
international Times Higher Education has ranked China as the strongest nation
in its first Higher Education BRICS and emerging economies rankings, with
Chinese universities taking four of the top 10 places and 15 in the top 50
places. Peking University, which I had the opportunity to visit last month, is
one of the most highly ranked universities (41st worldwide) with a
strong focus on science, technology and research. I had very fruitful discussions with the President
of the University and possibilities of collaboration will be envisaged in
fields of Astrophysics, Nano science, Space science and Big Data.
I also had meetings with the presidents of the
China Agricultural University and the Beijing Institute of Technology, who were
eager to extend their collaboration to our universities. I understand that an
agreement between the Beijing Institute of Technology and the University of
Mauritius has already been signed to promote academic exchanges.
I have to express my sincere appreciation to the
Chinese authorities for their willingness to support our institutions. During my meeting with Mr Hao Ping, Vice
Minister of Education, I was assured of strong support for reinforcement of
ties between universities of our two countries.
Excellency, I also had the opportunity in 2013 to
visit the Southeast University,
Nanjing and Tong Ji University in Shanghai and we had very constructive
discussions on collaboration in the fields of ocean studies and architecture.
I am in fact extremely grateful to the Ambassador,
HE Mi Li Li for organising a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of the
Hanban to discuss about the establishment of the Confucius Institute.
The various meetings at all levels in China
demonstrated a strong commitment to support our efforts to promote quality
Mauritian higher education.
Excellency, like China, we place high priority on
education and value the importance of higher education as a means to create
knowledge and foster innovation. It is
our sincere wish that the collaborative partnership be further strengthened in
the field of higher education, science, research and innovation.
Thank you.
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