A group of Chinese youth volunteers are in Zimbabwe for a one-year exchange program aimed at promoting cooperation between the two countries in various fields.

The group comprising 15 youths and nine officials will see the youths being attached to various Zimbabwean training institutions which include those in the ministry of health, higher and tertiary education and agriculture.

Chinese ambassador to Zimbabwe Yuan Nansheng said at the welcome ceremony held in Harare on Wednesday that this is the first group of Chinese youth volunteers the Chinese government decided to dispatch to Zimbabwe.

China and Zimbabwe enjoy profound traditional friendship, China always regards Zimbabwe as its reliable, all-weather friend, and the Chinese government has been providing assistance to the Zimbabwean government and its people within its own capacity, he said.

"The Chinese government is confident that the volunteers will make a contribution to the various sectors in Zimbabwe," Yuan said, urging them to work hard and make an impact in the various sectors they will be working under.

Youth Development and Employment Creation Minister Retired Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri said such programs continue to enhance the existing bilateral relationship between the two countries.

"The dispatch of the youth volunteers by China to Zimbabwe is not the first under the existing bilateral arrangement, hence more youths will benefit from the program," he said.

The agreement signed between the two countries will see the volunteers offering services in the areas of Chinese teaching, sport, training in computer technology, Chinese medical diagnosis and treatment and technology of animal husbandry among others.

The Chinese volunteers arrived in Harare on Tuesday. They had an orientation workshop with Zimbabwean youths and visited the beneficiary institutions in Zimbabwe's capital on Wednesday.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2007)