A total of 127 scholars were rewarded today at the ceremony for the second round of Cheung Kong Scholars Program, a special program jointly established and sponsored by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and Hong Kong entrepreneur Li Ka-shing and his Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Limited.

The Cheung Kong Scholars Program aims at speeding up the training of a generation of young and middle-aged academic leaders in colleges and universities. It is intended to magnetize a multitude of young and middle-aged academic elites at home and abroad to participate in the construction of Chinese colleges and universities so as to attain world levels in key branches of learning.

According to the program, the MOE will set up 300 to 500 professorial chairs in the next three to five years in Chinese higher-education institutions, and the scholars cited by the Cheung Kong program will get 100,000 yuan in annual allowances each.

Up to now, about 200 scholars have been rewarded by the program. Lu Fuyuan, vice minister of education, said at today's ceremony that since its formal launching, the Cheung Kong Scholars Program has been well received at home and abroad, and has made substantial progress.

Lu pointed that the program will greatly speed up the cultivation of talented people and the development of disciplines in higher-education institutions, and will consolidate the academic status of Chinese higher-education institutions and strengthen their competitiveness.

He asked related departments and higher-education institutions to support these scholars.

Zhu Guangya, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) attended the ceremony.