Seychelles-China cooperation-Ambassador Le Gall visits Qingdao |18 August 2007
According to a communiqué from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Le Gall met
Mayor Xia Geng said he very much appreciated meeting with President James Michel on May 25 and kept lively memories of his visit to Seychelles.
Ambassador Le Gall also met with Professor Wu Dexing, President of Qingdao based Ocean University of China (OUC), and Professor Dong Shuanglin, Vice-President, as well as other members of the University management team.
OUC has developed into a high-level university, world renowned for its disciplines in Marine Science and fisheries. It has over 24,000 registered students (including 1200 international students) and over 70 laboratories. OUC also owns the “Dong Fang Hong 2”, a 3,500-tonne research vessel used for both teaching and international scientific research. The University library has established a unique foreign language database for oceanography and fishery science. The OUC top management is of the view that the 21st century is an ocean-focused century. It welcomed the announcement that Seychelles is planning to build its own university and during the talks with Ambassador Le Gall, both sides agreed on the need to pursue an interactive dialogue on the way the two universities could cooperate.
Ambassador Le Gall also had discussions with Mr Ding Hong Bin, standing Vice- Manager of Qingdao Construction Group Corporation, as well as with other senior engineers and project managers familiar with the implementation of construction projects in Seychelles for the last 18 years. Qingdao Construction Group Corporation is 50 years old and active in more than 20 countries and was classified as one of the Top 500 Chinese Companies and one of the Top 20 international engineering Contracting Chinese Companies. In 2005 it won the Chinese “National Quality Management Prize”. The company is willing to increase and diversify its investments in Seychelles.
Ambassador Le Gall’s visit was organized by Qingdao Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, on the occasion of the opening ceremony of the International Regatta, one year ahead of the Olympic Games sailing competition to be held there, and at the time of the Qingdao International Beer Festival, the biggest event of this kind in Asia attracting millions of visitors in this very popular tourist resort of 8 million habitants.