The purpose of the visit was to further cement the already existing bilateral ties between the two countries and high of the agenda of the meeting was the signing of a draft Memorandum of Understanding between China and the Gambia’s Higher Education Ministry at the Conference Hall.
It was signed by the Permanent Secretary of MoHERST and the LiuGong Machinery of China.
The other MoU was between the University of Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (USET) and Guangxi Polytechnic of construction for capacity building.
The LiuGong Machinery South Africa, led by the general manager, donated two boreholes to be installed at two of the TVET Centers.
His Excellency, Liu Jin, the Chinese Ambassador to The Gambia led the team which was headed by Mr. Wang Weiping, a member of the Standing Committee and head of the Organisation Department of the CPC, Cuangxi Committee of China.
The visit was also aimed to sign a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in vocational education which was also designed to strengthen existing partnership in skills development between the People’s Republic of China and The Gambia.
Speaking at the occasion, Professor Pierre Gomez, the minister for Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (MoHERST), said that the Guangxi of the standing committee of the CPC came to work with his ministry to enhance the collaboration between the countries, and also on TVET programmes.
He said: “…. also is to see how we can develop the educational cooperation and then later that will come up with an MoU between my ministry and the Guangxi Province to promote education, specifically on TVET and other STEM programmes.”
He further revealed that among the objectives of the visit was to come up with a Gambia-Guangxi Alliance on TVET, saying that “we will set up an alliance to see how we can promote TVET in the Gambia and to create opportunities for our students and staff to have access to high quality education in China.”
He pointed out that the education sectors of the two counties realised the need for the partnership and moved a step ahead to sign the MoU, adding that the gathering was a clear indication of the progress they have made under the memorandum with high optimism on the future of their collaboration.
“The Gambia government has realised the need to emphasise the welfare of our youth, and the education sector has launched a reform to focus on the skilling of youth,” he said, adding that “while building these quality issues at the University of the Gambia, we decided to take TVET and technical and engineering education to a higher level and build a structure that will ensure sustainability.”
“We want to follow the People’s Republic of China on this path” and we have no doubt that it will be a prosperous and worthwhile journey,” he concluded.
Mr. Wang Weiping acknowledged the steady progress in educational cooperation between the two countries under the strategic guidance of the two countries’ presidents.
He said that China is willing to work with The Gambia to deepen cooperation with The Gambia in technical and vocational education, language teaching and digital studies as a way to benefit its populations, especially youths.
