Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sok Chenda Sophea in Beijing on Friday.
Han noted that China and Cambodia are good neighbors, good friends and good partners. Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and Prime Minister Hun Manet twice last year, and has maintained strategic communication with Samdech Techo Hun Sen, he said, adding that they reached important consensus on building a high-quality, high-level, and high-standard China-Cambodia community with a shared future in the new era.
China attaches great importance to and is committed to deepening comprehensive strategic cooperation with Cambodia, Han said.
China is willing to continuously enrich the Diamond Hexagon cooperation framework, promote synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative and Cambodia's Pentagonal Strategy, advance projects to build the Industrial Development Corridor and the Fish and Rice Corridor, organize a series of activities for the China-Cambodia People-to-People Exchange Year 2024, and promote greater development in building the China-Cambodia community with a shared future, Han added.
Sok Chenda Sophea said the new Cambodian government will make every effort to carry forward the traditional friendship between Cambodia and China, firmly abide by the one-China principle, strengthen practical cooperation with China in various fields and push forward bilateral relations.
Chinese vice president meets Cambodian deputy PM
China and Africa will ramp up efforts to enhance cooperation in the education sector, partly by launching multiple programs, according to speakers at a dialogue which brought Chinese and African delegates and representatives of UNESCO together in Beijing on Friday.
The China-Africa-UNESCO High Level Dialogue on Cooperation in Education and Cultural Heritage Protection, attended by more than 40 education specialists, issued recommendations on cooperation between Chinese and African universities, and announced the launch of five centers for China-Africa cooperation in fields such as Chinese language education, vocational skills education, and teacher training.
Delegates at the dialogue said the collaboration will help Africa develop its teaching capacity and empower its young people to close the skills gap, which is paramount for the continent's long-term development and prosperity.
"Africa has vast resources, both natural resources, but also even for human capital. It is a continent with generally a very young population. It's absent from a lot of these problems that the developed world is facing like aging populations and so on and so forth. But in order to turn these natural resources or natural talents into real, productive resources and real productive human capital, we need education," said Jin Li, director of the UNESCO International Center for Higher Education Innovation.
"As Egerton University, we stand to support a collaboration that is going to support capacity-building for our staff in the university, as well as postgraduate and undergraduate training for our students within Kenya and also the People's Republic of China," said George Ogendi, a professor at Kenya's Egerton University.
The African Union has set the goal of "well educated citizens and a skills revolution underpinned by science, technology and innovation" in its 2063 roadmap, aligning with the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which emphasize the importance of inclusive and equitable education, as well as lifelong learning opportunities for all.
On the sidelines of the dialogue, delegates stressed the importance of concrete actions for Africa to achieve its target.
"These are very important plans of Africa and the world for sustainable development goals. So for that, we need very good infrastructure. We need good infrastructure for information technologies. We need internet to be accessible by all. So the concerns expressed by delegates from Africa are very valid that unless we have such infrastructure available, the full benefits of education cannot be brought where it is needed," said Shahbaz Khan, director of the UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office for East Asia.
Noting that more than 60 percent of Africa's population is below the age of 25, delegates said that these young people could become a tremendous asset in driving sustainable growth on the continent if they are given access to quality education.
China, Africa to enhance education cooperation
