Lanzhou University, in the city of Lanzhou, Gansu province, has set up a training session in Chinese language and culture, for Russian government civil servants, starting on Nov 2, with 26 young Russian officials taking part in.
This session lasts 14 days and is part of the Russian government’s “backup management cadre training project” for the 2010-2015 period, and a representative of the provincial Foreign Affair Office, Lv Xinglai, and vice-president of the university, Pan Baotian, were on hand to talk to the participants at the opening ceremony and to make sure that everything goes well.
China’s Education Ministry’s International Cooperation and Exchange Dept also sent a letter to the session explaining that the Chinese and Russian presidents reached an agreement on Sino-Russian youth exchanges with the idea of increasing friendships between the two and helping young people gain a better understanding of the other’s culture. It went on to say that Russian civil servants can get more information on China’s political, social, medical systems, corruption measures, and dealing with the ecology and environment in this way, and can learn about the culture of ethnic groups of northern and northwestern China.
Opening ceremony for Russian civil servant study seminar at Lanzhou University. [Photo/ China Daily]
Actually, the idea goes back even earlier, to when a group from Lomonosov Moscow State University visited Lanzhou University, this past March, and reached an agreement on education and scientific cooperation and decided to hold workshop seminar for Russian civil servants.
Lanzhou University is focusing now on culture in western Chinese regions and building a good university and has relations with Russia and many other central Asia countries. It also opened Confucian Institutes in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Georgia. Recently, it connected with several Russian universities and institutes for further cooperation, including Lomonosov Moscow State, St. Petersburg State, Irkutsk State, and the Russian Academy of Oriental Sciences.
Maxim Victor Pavlovic, a professor in management at Lomonosov Moscow State University. [Photo/ China Daily]
By Xue Chaohua and Li Xiaoxu