China will grant scholarships to more African students to study in China, especially to those pursuing postgraduate degrees, said Chinese Vice-Minister of Education Wei Yu at a seminar on cooperation in education, scienceand technology and health, part of the three-day China-Africa Cooperation Forum that opened here Tuesday.

Wei said China will expand educational cooperation with Africancountries in the new century. China will send more teachers to Africa to help its local institutions of higher learning to develop key disciplinary areas and establish laboratories, and it will provide African countries necessary teaching equipment and stationery, Wei said.

China will also encourage Chinese universities to forge closer ties with their African counterparts, said Wei, adding that this will promote mutual understanding and common development.

Distance education will also be a way of upgrading cooperation with African countries, said Wei.

So far, Chinese Ministry of Education has initiated 36 projectsin cooperation with Africa, 23 of which have been completed.

In addition, over 10 Chinese universities have established relations with 20 institutions of higher learning in 16 African countries.

At present, the number of African students studying in China totals 1,384, who account for 21.8 percent of all students granted Chinese governmental scholarships.

Education is essential to sustainable social and economic development for both China and Africa, Wei said, stressing that the potential for cooperation in the field remains tremendous due to their common needs and mutually-complementary advantages.

(Xinhua 10/11/2000)