China's Yunnan, Laos strengthen education exchanges

Southwest China's Yunnan Province signed a memorandum supplement with Laos on Saturday to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in education, culture, health and media. Under the supplement between the Yunnan Provincial Education Department and the Ministry of Education and Sports of Laos, the two sides will jointly produce TV programs on Chinese language learning and the teaching of specialized subjects and professional skills. The programs will be broadcast on state TV in Laos. Yunnan will provide university scholarships annually for 10 Lao students who will study at Kunming Medical University in the next five years. Zou Ping, deputy director of the Yunnan education department, said nearly 1,000 Lao students currently study in Yunnan, which neighbors Laos. Since Yunnan and Laos signed an education cooperation agreement in 2009, the two sides have sped up cooperation, including increased exchange of students and the training of interpreters and translators. Yunnan has some 13,000 learners of Lao language and 200 teaching staff members for the language.