Chinese ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa is delivering a speech at a pre-departure gathering of 40 students who are leaving tomorrow for China. Photo/Liu Hongjie

China announced on Wednesday that it will increase the number of scholarships offered to Kenya to 1,000.

Chinese ambassador to Kenya Liu Xianfa made the announcement at a pre-departure gathering of 40 students who are leaving on Thursday for China. It follows a fruitful discussion between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Kenyan counterpart Uhuru Kenyatta late last year during the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Johannesburg, South Africa.

"China is willing to share its experiences with other countries through capacity development," Liu said, adding that the move will enable implementation of the 10 overarching plans proposed by Xi during the FOCAC summit. While announcing a $60 billion investment package, China plans to partner with Africa on industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, financial services, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction and public health and security improvement.

Speaking on behalf of the Principal Secretary in the public service, youth and gender ministry, Grace Otieno, the principal administrative secretary, urged the beneficiaries of scholarships to adopt the mind set and attitude of the Chinese, besides gaining conventional knowledge in class.

"Chinese are good in time management, they are diligent and have high integrity. These are values that can accelerate the achievements of our national strategies if applied in public service," she said. "We need to go an extra mile for our experiences from China to be visible here."

China has been offering full scholarships to Kenya annually since 1982. According to China's economic and commercial office in Kenya, 2011-15 saw 2,065 Kenyans attend short-term training seminars in China. This ranks the east African country second in the continent after Ghana and fourth globally in the total number of students studying in China under full scholarships.

Otieno also said that she was excited that 21 police officers have been selected to attend a short seminar in counter-terrorism in China, saying that this will enormously boost the country's security and buoy investors confidence.

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