Chinese govt's scholarship helps Kenyans and deepens ties

The China-Kenya educational cooperation has yielded fruitful results, said China's Ambassador to Kenya Sun Baohong at the 2018 farewell reception for Kenyan students in Nairobi on Wednesday.

Sun said "Sixty-nine Kenyan students have received the Chinese Government Scholarship this year and some 100 other Kenyan students have got Chinese scholarships from other sources."

She praised the young men and women as the power of growth, power of development and power of opening-up. "You represent the hope of Kenya and the future of China-Kenya friendship."

According Sun, since the Johannesburg Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in 2015, China has provided over 67,000 training opportunities for Kenyan personnel from different sectors.

For three years in a row, China has been Kenya's largest trading partner, investor and contractor. The bilateral trade volume in 2017 reached $5.2 billion, 59 percent more than that in 2013.

Currently there are about 400 Chinese enterprises in Kenya, creating nearly 130,000 job opportunities. The Belt and Road Initiative and China-Africa industrial capacity cooperation have strongly boosted Kenya's Big Four Agenda and Vision 2030.