The CITVETF was one of the five training institutions selected from around the continent to enter into formal partnerships with their Chinese counterpart of JMI.
Former National Assembly Member, Hon. Ousman Sillah, the Initiator and Chairperson of Crab Island TVET Foundation and Ms. Chen Xiao Quin, Vice President of Jiangsu Maritime Institute, were the officials who signed the MoU on behalf of their respective institutions.
The signing ceremony was held at a special session dedicated to the China Africa TVET Cooperation Consortium (CATCC) Annual Conference 2024. The forum was organised by the China Education Association for International Exchange (CEAIE) and held in Beijing.
The Crab Island TVET Foundation Chairperson was accompanied by the institution’s director Matarr John.
Officials said before the signing ceremony between the two institutions, the Gambian officials attended the CATCC conference and China – Africa - UNESCO High-Level Dialogue on Cooperation in Education and Cultural Heritage Protection respectively.
The Gambian delegation were also taken on a tour of the Jiangsu Maritime Institute Campus. During the tour of the institution, they held a discussion with JMI President Professor Wen Huabing and Mr. Xu Jinjun, the Director of the Department of Cooperation and Development.
The discussion between the two institutions, officials added, centred on a wide of issue ranging from the areas of collaboration and activities under the MoU and the implementation modalities.
Prof Wen stated that the Jiangsu Maritime Institute’s partnership with Crab Island TVET Foundation is in line with the policy direction pronounced by President Xi at the FOCAC on China’s commitment to forge closer win-win ties with Africa. He pledged their commitment to give full support to their partnership with Crab Island TVET Foundation.
For his part, Hon. Ousman Sillah expressed profound appreciation to Prof. Wen, for the support of Jiangsu in facilitating their visit to China and the warm reception and hospitality accorded to them by the JMI staff during their stay. He equally extended a formal invitation for the President to pay a return visit to The Gambia.
Sillah described the MoU with Jiangsu Maritime Institute of Nanjing as ‘timely and a significant milestone in the history of their young training institution’.
“The establishment of collaborative relations with JMI which has been in existence for over 70 years and is said to be one of the leading maritime training institutions in the world will be of immense benefit to Crab Island TVET Foundation in terms of experience sharing regarding the provision of training programmes and institutional management.”
The new partnership, he said, ‘is coming at a time when the Crab Island TVET Centre is undergoing some physical transformation and operational expansion with the construction of a new building and introduction of more relevant and demand driven courses that will help build the technical capacities of Gambians to prepare them for the world of work.”
“The benefits that such a collaborative relation can bring to support the expansion efforts of Crab Island TVET Centre are immense and cannot be over emphasised,” he postulated.
The former Banjul North NAM emphasised on the importance of skills in nation building, saying: “The leaps and bounds registered by this highly developed country is partly because of her investments in skills development.”
The partnership, he continued, will be focusing on: Co-operation on the educational and technical training programs that can benefit the students from Gambia and The People’s Republic of China, exchanges of information and materials including the curricula, textbooks, online teaching resources, results of teaching and others.
“The co-operation will also include training of teachers and students, Faculty and student exchange programs, Joint research programs, and conferences in the fields of applied technology, humanities, education, and management,” he said, adding that it will also further include Co-hosting skills competitions or skills displays and any other activities viewed to be mutually beneficial.
