25 South Sudanese head to China to hone skills in road, bridge construction

JUBA, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Some 25 South Sudanese engineers on Monday traveled to China to learn skills in the construction and maintenance of roads and bridges.

Deng Marial, 28, a civil engineer in the Ministry of Transport, who is among the participants, said he and his colleagues are looking forward to learning Chinese experience on road and bridge maintenance in order to return home and utilize the knowledge acquired from overseas.

"I know we will go to China, we will learn a lot of things, and we will come back to the country and try to help in any way we can," Marial told Xinhua during the send-off ceremony held at the Chinese embassy in the South Sudanese capital of Juba.

"We hope to learn how they manage and maintain their roads and bridges, we will go through, and then we will tell our leaders from here that this is what is happening there, and if we can all cooperate, we can maybe try our best to cope up with what China is going through," he added.

Aben Jackline Chol, quality control engineer in the Ministry of Roads and Bridges, said she expects her country to benefit immensely from her group of participants who will study for 21 days in China.

"My expectation is to learn and see what is outside the world that we don't have here and to see how to share the knowledge back home because we want to develop our country," Chol said.

Minister for Transport Madut Biar Yel appreciated the support the Chinese government has been providing to South Sudan over the years since its independence in 2011.

Biar said they are grateful for the support provided on building the Jur River Bridge and also maintaining another bridge in Wau Town of Western Bahr el Ghazal state.

"My advice to you is you represent more than 10 million South Sudanese, go there and come back to advise us on what you have seen not only on roads and bridges," Biar said while sending off the participants.

Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan Ma Qiang said China is helping South Sudan and other brotherly African countries promote their social and economic development in a more independent and stable way by sharing the valuable experience and knowledge gained in China's development in various fields.

Ma disclosed that inviting talents from various fields in Africa to participate in training seminars in China is an important practice in the capacity-building project.

In July last year, the seminar on road and bridge construction and maintenance in South Sudan was successfully held in Juba through online teaching.

He said the bilateral cooperation between China and South Sudan has achieved outstanding results in the field of infrastructure construction.