PHNOM PENH, April 17 -- The Chinese government on Thursday donated 203,000 U.S. dollars to the Chinese Association in Cambodia to support schools offering Chinese language courses in Cambodia.

Chinese Ambassador to Cambodia Bu Jianguo handed over the money to Duong Chhiv, the president of the Chinese Association in Cambodia.

Speaking at the ceremony, Bu said that of the donation, 10,000 U.S. dollars was donated by the Chinese Embassy to Cambodia and the other 1.2 million yuan, or 193,000 U.S. dollars, was granted by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council of China.

She thanked the association for its outstanding efforts in promoting Chinese language and culture in Cambodia.

"The budget is to ease financial difficulties for Chinese ( language) schools in Cambodia," she said. "Promoting Chinese language and culture in Cambodia is essential to further broaden the bilateral ties and to make people-to-people relations closer."

Duong Chhiv expressed his gratitude to China for its steady support to Chinese language schools in Cambodia, saying that the financial support truly showed the attention of the Chinese government to overseas Chinese.

In Cambodia, he said, more and more Cambodians have been interested in learning Chinese thanks to the good relations between the two countries, which has resulted in more Chinese investors in this country.

According to the association, Chinese language schools have been mushrooming in recent years. Currently, there are 57 such schools with more than 40,000 students throughout Cambodia.