President James Michel of the Seychelles said his country would send more students to China to further the cultural and educational cooperation between the two countries.

 

He made the remark during a talk with seven students from the Seychelles in Beijing yesterday morning before an official meeting with President Hu Jintao in the afternoon.

 

Michel asked about the students' lives and encouraged them to value their time in China.

 

"Seychelles and China have a good educational and cultural cooperation," he said. "In the future we'll strengthen our friendship and take the cooperation to all levels."

 

Michel said China has been welcoming Seychelles students for many years and several good students who'd studied in the country were now making contributions to the national economy. "We'll definitely send more students to China in the future," he said.

 

China started granting scholarships to students from the Seychelles in 1984, according to China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2005 eight of their students studied in China and the number has climbed to 18 this year.

 

Neal Servina, a Seychellois student from Beijing Language and Culture University, who came to China in August, said he was very happy to see the president.

 

"It's a privilege," he said. "I never expected a chance to meet the president. I thought I might be scared but we had a very comfortable talk because the president is very nice and kind."

 

"Seychelles is beautiful but China is beautiful for its history, culture and architecture," Servina told China Daily. "Many Seychellois people also view China as a country with advanced technology."

 

Chantal Lailam, a Seychellois who has spent five years in the city and is now a student at Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, said she hopes her traditional medicine studies could be a friendship bridge between the two countries. She said the treatments had gained growing recognition worldwide but very few people in the Seychelles were aware of them.

 

The president also recalled the history of Chinese people in the Seychelles. He said many years ago when his country was in the early stage of development many Chinese came as traders. "Chinese are not strangers to the Seychelles," he said. "We even have a Chinese pagoda."

 

Figures from the Chinese Embassy in the Seychelles show that about 600 out of the country's 80,000 citizens are Chinese or their descendants. There's also been a small increase in the number of Chinese travelers to the country in recent years.

 

(China Daily November 3, 2006)