Southwest China's Sichuan Province has launched a five-year campaign to improve the training of more than 1.7 million officials.
The Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) issued a document recommending a large-scale re-training campaign.
According to local sources, 350,000 officials will be sent back to schools for training courses this year, including 211 who will be selected to pursue studies in foreign countries including the United States, Britain, Singapore, and Germany.
Trainees will mainly study courses in subjects ranging from documents of the 16th CPC National Congress, cultural industry, electronic administration, foreign economy and trade, to rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
(Xinhua News Agency May 5, 2003)