The Kumasi Polytechnic has set up a centre to train students and other interested persons in the Chinese language and culture.

The Centre, which was set up in partnership with the Shanxi University is to concretize the already existing close collaboration between the polytechnic and some universities in China.

Professor Nicholas Nana Nsowah-Nuamah, Rector of Kumasi Polytechnic made this known, when the Chinese ambassador to Ghana, Sun Baohong, paid a working visit to the school in Kumasi on Thursday.

He said plans were underway to dedicate a whole block at the Polytechnic as a training centre for Chinese language and culture in the country.

The visit was to strengthen the bi-lateral relationship between the Chinese Embassy in Ghana and the polytechnic and discuss further, ways of assistance to improve teaching and learning in the school.

Professor Nsowah-Nuamah said the Polytechnic had since 2010, engaged in several levels of interaction with China and signed numerous Memoranda of Understandings (MOUs) with a number of Chinese academic institutions and business partners.

These include the Business College of Shanxi University, Jiangsu University, Yangtze University, Wuhan University of Technology, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Ningbo University, North East Normal University and Shenyang Medical College.

Through these partnerships, about 30 undergraduates of the polytechnic have been enrolled in the collaborative programmes since last year.

The current admissions had seen 65 students, who have shown interest to study in China.

Professor Nsowah-Nuamah said the partner institutions have also provided scholarships to a number of the teaching staff to pursue Masters’ and PhD programmes in their institutions.

He expressed appreciation to the partner institutions for the role they had played in building the capacities of the staff of the polytechnic.

Professor Nsowah-Nuamah called for further assistance from the Chinese government to improve teaching and learning as well as research activities in the school.

Madam Sun Baohong on her part said, the visit was to expand further the existing cooperation between the embassy and the polytechnic and seek further ways on improving them.

She praised K-Poly for taking the initiative to collaborate with Chinese universities and businesses for their mutual benefit.

Madam Sun said the embassy would support the language centre to train more students and other interested persons in Chinese language and culture to enable them to interact freely with Chinese business people, who were all around the world.