Chinese telecom equipment and service giant Huawei Technologies will for the next four years offer 15 training opportunities for top Ghanaian students majoring in information and communications technology, it has announced.

It is part of its global corporate social responsibility program "Seeds for the Future" launched in Thailand in 2008, and has already been implemented in 40 countries and benefited over 10, 000 students from over 100 universities.

Chief Executive Officer of Huawei's Ghana branch Xu Hu said at the launching ceremony on Friday that the beneficiaries to be selected from Ghanaian institutions would travel to China to have eye-opening experiences.

"Kenya became the first African country where Huawei launched its 'Seed for the Future' program. We are happy to know that Ghana becomes the first West African country to launch this program," Xu said.

Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Sun Baohong said that Huawei was one of the many Chinese enterprises that had made remarkable contributions to Ghana's economic development, social progress and improvement in people's livelihoods.

"On the eve of celebrating our 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Ghana, we are very satisfied with our cooperation on all fronts, especially in the economic and trade area," the ambassador said.

She urged the first beneficiaries to make very good use of the opportunity offered by Huawei.

"You will join 3,700 Ghanaian students studying in China and nearly 500 Ghanaian trainees sponsored by the Chinese government. I can assure you that you will enjoy your life and studies in China," she said.

Ghana's Vice-President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur expressed the government's gratitude to Huawei and the Chinese government for the continued support.

He believed that the "Seeds of the Future" program was a help bridge between ICT that is learned in the classroom and ICT that is required in industry.

"Perhaps, this is an important bridge that has to be made. I hope that it will expose our young people to a different culture, different work experience, that they will come back more time conscious and many of the attributes of the Chinese culture," the vice president added.

The company plans to enroll over 1,000 students across Africa into the program over the next five years in a bid to help build ICT capabilities in Africa. Endi

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