Chinese Ambassador to Albania, Mr. Zhou Ding visited Mihal Shahini Professional High School in Cerrik on Monday, presented Graduation Certificates to all participants who have attended online “Training Courses on Building Modern Farms in Albania”, and awarded Chinese Ambassador Scholarships to 10 elite students of the School. Mr. Andis Salla, Mayor of Cerrik Municipality, Ms. Erina Disho, Principal of the School, and Ms. Zheng Zhenling, Economic and Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy, attended the event.
According to Ambassador Zhou, “Training Courses on Building Modern Farms in Albania” is one of the important annual programs under the framework of bilateral human resources training cooperation, whose successful implementation has set concrete foundations for further bilateral cooperation in the field of agriculture and education. As a traditional agricultural country feeding a population of 1.4 billion and the largest developing country in the world, China has successfully promoted and expanded Chinese-style modernization in the past 10 years by adhering to the people-centered development philosophy.
“We focus on promoting common prosperity for all people, taking into account the balanced development of material and spiritual progress, pursuing harmonious coexistence between man and nature, vigorously promoting rural revitalization, successfully lifting nearly 100 million rural poor people out of poverty, and completing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 10 years ahead of the schedule of poverty reduction goals”, Zhou illustrated.
Ambassador Zhou further emphasized that, Albania is rich in natural resources, hard-working and intelligent people, for which agriculture is expected to be with great development potentials. The Embassy is willing to maintain close communications with Cerrik Municipality, Mihal Shahini Professional High School, as well as the other relevant authorities and institutions of the Albanian side, with an aim to deepen exchanges and cooperation in the fields of agriculture and education between China and Albania, and bring concrete benefits to both peoples.
Mayor Salla and Principal Disho both expressed their gratefulness to the Chinese side, for choosing Mihal Shahini Professional High School, located in Cerrik, as the Albanian counterpart to hold the Program, and expectations for the Embassy to carry out further cooperation in agriculture and other fields with Cerrik in the future. Principal Disho said that, the Program’s successful implementation fully reflects the profound friendship between Albania and China, and is of great benefit to enriching the knowledge reserves of teachers and students and strengthening their professional skills. Mayor Salla added that, the Ambassador Scholarship will motivate the students to make further academic progress.
Recent years have seen continuous successes of educational cooperation in the field of agriculture between the two governments. As announced by the Embassy, during 2018 and 2019, in support of the “100 Villages” Program set up by the Albanian government, the Chinese side offered various types of bilateral training programs for rural representatives as well as experts in the field of agriculture, with specific training topics starting from public management and modernization in agriculture, to the marketing of agricultural products, etc. Participants of these programs were welcomed to China, attended short-term training courses offered by China’s first-class agricultural academies, and had the opportunity to visit China’s most advanced agricultural research institutes, agribusinesses and modernized farms. In this process, the two sides made great exchanges in both agricultural development strategy and practical experiences, and China’s successful experiences in agricultural modernization, poverty alleviation and rural development gained great popularity among the trainees.
Despite the pandemic, which has hampered international travel to China since 2020, the training courses have been innovatively moved to online platforms. This October, the two-week Program “Training Courses on Building Modern Farms in Albania” was successfully held by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Mechanization Sciences Group Co., Ltd., with professors and lecturers from the China Agricultural University, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences and so on. Over 50 Albanian trainees participated, including teachers and students from the School, the local business community and farmers.
/Argumentum.al
