BEIRUT -- The Lebanese telecommunications ministry and the Chinese Huawei signed Thursday a cooperation agreement aiming at training 10 Lebanese students in communication engineering for 5 to 8 weeks in 2014.

In a press conference held at the ministry, caretaker telecommunications minister Nicolas Sehanoui and chairman of Huawei's company in North Africa Pan Fan signed the agreement.

Sehnaoui said "this cooperation will be a model that we shall generalize on all telecommunications companies operating in Lebanon."

He also noted that the students will majorly benefit from this project as Lebanon will benefit from his citizens' expertise in this field.

For his part, Ban stressed the commitment of Huawei to the Lebanese market, pointing to its ambition to take over the role of main provider in the telecommunications sector in Lebanon.