Mozambican undergraduates win Chinese Ambassador Scholarship

Chinese Ambassador to Mozambique Wang Hejun (L, Front) presents a scholarship certificate to a student during an awarding ceremony at University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) in Maputo, Mozambique, on Dec. 9, 2022. A total of 12 undergraduates from Mozambique's University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), were awarded Friday in Maputo this year's Chinese Ambassador Scholarship. (Photo by Israel Zefanias/Xinhua)

MAPUTO, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- A total of 12 undergraduates from Mozambique's University Eduardo Mondlane (UEM), were awarded Friday in Maputo this year's Chinese Ambassador Scholarship.

They won the scholarship for their excellent performance in learning Chinese language and culture, which has been an undergraduate course of UEM for years.

The awarding ceremony, held parallelly with a photo exhibition themed "An Extraordinary Decade of China in the New Era" in the Confucius Institute building of UEM, brought together the Principal Manuel Guilherme Junior and the Chinese Ambassador to Mozambique Wang Hejun, among other distinguished guests.

When addressing the ceremony, Prof. Guilherme said the event was a good opportunity to celebrate the 10 years of fruitful cooperation between his university and China's Zhejiang Normal University, which allows Mozambique to materialize the teaching of Mandarin and the linguistic and cultural exchange with China.

"Chinese is the language of the future, the language of development in the coming times. With these learnings we can have consulting services and benefit from the global world through communication in a language spoken by many people around the world," said the principal.

He thanked Chinese government for creating this annual scholarship program, encouraging the beneficiaries to make use of the awards as an inspiration and an opportunity to transform their lives.

The principal also highlighted the quality of Confucius Institute training at UEM and the close interaction between the university and the Chinese business community in Mozambique, which ensured a high rate of employability of the graduates.

"That's why we want to encourage the institute to continue to develop its activities in the field of disseminating Chinese culture and language, focusing on the diversification of its training offer," said Guilherme.

In his turn, the ambassador Wang Hejun encouraged young Mozambicans to study hard, to actively participate in their country's development and to become a key role for promoting China-Mozambique friendship and their pragmatic cooperation from generation to generation.

Wang used several sets of data in his speech to provide a representation of China's breakthroughs and landmark achievements in the past decade.

"We are holding the photo exhibition at the UEM for the purpose of opening a window for the "Generation Z" Mozambicans to learn more about China and consolidating the popular support for the friendship between the two countries," said the ambassador.

Augusta Vilanculos, a scholarship winner who was in her sophomore year at the UEM, told Xinhua that the scholarship proved that she was "on a good path". "It encourages me to keep learning Chinese mandarin and make other achievements in the future," she said.