The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of Uganda, H.E. Zheng ZhuQiang has today 19th January 2017 paid his first courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor Prof. John Ddumba-Ssentamu. Accompanied by the Director of the Confucius Institute (CI) at Makerere University, Prof. Oswald Ndoleriire, his co-Directors and Chinese Embassy Staff, Amb. Zheng ZhuQiang commended Makerere University for grooming a lot of famous statesmen and women who have gone on to shape world affairs.

Earlier on in the day, Amb. ZhuQiang had visited the Confucius Institute at Makerere University and commended the work done by the Director and his co-Directors in teaching Chinese language and culture in Uganda.

“The Confucius Institute at Makerere University has received full support from the Management and I hope that it grows from strength to strength,” remarked Amb. Zheng ZhuQiang.

On the national front, the Ambassador shared that the past 15 years have played witness to further growth of China-Uganda relations, with a lot of fruit especially in the education sector.  “The Chinese Government has provided a lot of scholarships to the Ugandan Government and as a result, a lot of Ugandans are studying in China.”
Amb. Zheng ZhuQiang however applauded the Confucius Institute as “a new way of study,” further noting that “now China sends teachers and volunteers to Uganda which makes learning closer and more meaningful.”

In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor Prof. John Ddumba-Ssentamu on behalf of the Management warmly welcomed the Ambassador on his maiden official visit to Makerere University. He shared a brief history of the University and the University’s core functions as; teaching and learning, research and innovations, and knowledge transfer partnerships.

“I am happy to note that the Chinese Government has played a crucial role in assisting Makerere University to achieve her core functions and the Confucius Institute (CI) as an example has done a great job,” remarked the Vice Chancellor.

Inaugurated on 19th December 2014, the Confucius Institute at Makerere University is the 443rd in the world and was initiated as part of collaboration between Makerere University and Xiangtan University under the “China-Uganda Africa Universities 20+20 Cooperation Project” framework. The framework was initialized in 2010 and sponsored by the Ministry of Education, China.

The Vice Chancellor once again thanked Amb. Zheng ZhuQiang for visiting Makerere University and hoped that as relations between Uganda and China continued to grow, the Confucius Institute (CI) at Makerere University would achieve the standards boasted of by similar institutions worldwide.
 
Article by Public Relations Office