A two-day long 7th China Education Exhibition started here in capital Kathmandu on Saturday to foster understanding of Chinese education and higher education institutions amid Nepalese students, guardians and scholars.

The exhibition was followed by meeting of Nepal-China Education Exchange Forum for the first time in Nepal. Being a first of its kind, Nepal-China Education Exchange Forum will be discussing on further cooperation and collaboration in the field of education between two countries.

Nevertheless, the exhibition, visited by huge flow of visitors including students, scholars, diplomats and senior officials is focused on providing complete information about China's education, so that more and more Nepalese students, guardians can know about it.

"Such exhibitions have been successfully held in Nepal for six times, altogether there have 110 universities taking part. They provide information and channels for Nepalese education fields and people for understanding China, Chinese education and higher education institutions," said Liu Jinghui, Secretary-General of China Scholarship Council.

Terming the exhibition as a good means of educational exchange between two countries, Liu added, "Through the exhibition, Nepalese people could know more about Chinese universities, and we could know more about your country, and thus more academic links could be established between universities of two countries so as to strengthen friendship between two people."

According to her, over 230,000 international students studied in China in the year 2009, which reflects the level and quality of Chinese higher education quality and has been widely accepted and recognized by the world. Among them, 2,065 are from Nepal and 98 of them are enjoying Chinese government's scholarships.

In the 7th educational exhibition, 36 renowned Chinese Universities and Colleges are taking part in the exhibition which includes Engineering, Medicine, Language, Culture and Commerce, Science and technology and normal Universities, according to the organizers.

The exhibition is jointly organized by China Scholarship Council, Embassy of The People's Republic of China in Nepal and Araniko Society and was jointly inaugurated by Nepali minister for Education Sarvendra Nath Sukla, Liu Jinghui, Secretary-General of China Scholarship Council, Chinese envoy to Nepal Qiu Guohong and Dr. Harish Chandra Shah, President of Araniko Society, Nepal.

Arniko society has been organizing China Education Exhibition successfully for six years. First China Education Exhibition was held in 2003. Araniko Sociey, an alumni association of Nepalese scholars and experts who have graduated from China every year comes forward to host such exhibition.

Meanwhile, addressing the inaugural session, Nepali education minister Sukla said that this sort of education exhibition helps to enhance relation between two countries especially in people-to- people level. He also sought for continuity of this sort of exhibition as it benefits the interest of Nepalese students and providing information.

Sukla lauded the role of China Scholarship Council to organize such exhibitions in Nepal and as aimed by organizers, every year number of visitors to exhibition is increasing. Due to the successful exhibition, more and more Nepalese students have gone to China for study, organizers informed during the opening.

"The number of Nepalese students in China has also witnessed a large increase. Now, there are more than 2,500 Nepalese students studying in China and more than 800 students are under the scholarship scheme," Chinese ambassador to Nepal Qiu Guohong said.

"Due to the successful exhibition, more and more Nepali students have gone to China for study. China qualified high level manpower is working in different field and contributing a lot for nation building," added Dr. Harish Chandra Shah, President of Araniko Society.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2010)