On September 9, Louis Gabriel MISSATOU, Vice Mayor of Pointe-Noire Municipal Government of the Republic of Congo, Christian TCHICAYA, Office Cooperative Commissioner, along with Mr. Zhang Naidong, Deputy Consultant from the Foreign Affairs Office of the Suzhou Municipal People's Government and Hua Jia from European and African Department visited Suzhou Vocational University and met vice presidents Mr. Tao Yiyi and Mr. Zhang Jian of SVU.
On July 5, 2016, witnessed by President Xi Jinping of P.R.C and President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo, Suzhou and Pointe-Noire became friendly cities. To boost educational cooperation between the two friendly cities, Vice Mayor MISSATOU visited Suzhou Vocational University in September 2018 and June 2019 and expressed his willingness to cooperate in the talent training and cultural exchanges between Sino-Congo institutions.
On behalf of SVU, Mr. Zhang Jian welcomed the leaders from Pointe-Noire for visiting SVU again and congratulated the selected students. At the same time, he thanked the Foreign Affairs Office of the Suzhou Municipal People's Government for their consistent support. He introduced the development of SVU in recent years, especially the joint training of talents with South Africa and Malaysia. Mr. Tao Yiyi pointed out that SVU has excellent teaching facilities, and the implementation of a targeted talent training program in the education of international students meets the needs of local economic development for technical and skilled personnel. He hoped that the students would adapt to their study and life in SVU as soon as possible, and wished them success in their studies.
On behalf of the Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, Zhang Naidong thanked SVU for its work on friendly cities. He believed that the platform for friendly exchanges between China and Congo was built under the witness of leaders of the two countries, so both sides had responsibilities to build the platform well and brilliantly. He hoped that students would master both theories and skills, understand Chinese culture, introduce Congolese and African cultures to China, and promote Sino-African friendship.
Mr. MISSATOU spoke highly of the strengths of SVU and expressed sincere thanks to SVU for supporting the training of talents from Pointe-Noire. He urged the students to cherish the learning opportunity, study hard and master skills so as to contribute to the friendship between the two countries. At the same time, he once again invited SVU to visit Pointe-Noire, to better understand the current industrial development and unique Congolese culture and lay a solid foundation for the more precise cooperation between the two sides.
President Xi Jinping pointed out in the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation that youth are the hope of China-Africa relations. Many measures focus on youth, cultivating youth, supporting youth, and striving to provide them with more employment opportunities and better self-development. In the course of educational exchanges with Africa, Suzhou Vocational University adheres to the concept of sincerity and righteousness in Sino-African cooperation, cooperates in depth with the Ministry of Higher Education and Training, the Ministry of Tourism of South Africa and the Pointe-Noire Municipal Government of the Republic of Congo, carries out the project of talents cultivation and establishment of cultural exhibition centers , and helps to realize shared development of Sino-African community.