The Chinese government has provided more than 500 government scholarships to Ghanaian students since 1984, Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Sun Baohong said Thursday.
"Apart from scholarships, each year we provide more than 360 training opportunities for Ghanaian professionals," she made the remarks at a reception for Chinese Government Scholarship Students at her residence.
Sun disclosed that the number of self-financed Ghanaians studying in China topped all African countries.
According to her, education has always been a key area for China-Ghana cooperation for which reason China was offering grants to Ghana for the New Century Career Training Institute Expansion Project and the campus of the University of Health and Allied Sciences in Ho.
She said this was so because successive Ghanaian governments had put education as a top priority and invested a great portion of government budget in education.
Sun announced that very soon the Chinese government would partner their Ghanaian counterparts to implement the upgrading of polytechnic and vocational training project with the preferential financing of China Export and Import Bank.
On behalf of the government and people of Ghana, Lordina Mahama, Ghana's First Lady, expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for the continued support to Ghana, not only through scholarships to Ghanaian students, but also in other areas of socio-economic development.
She recalled the assistance China gave Ghana to construct a new ultra-modern office block for the ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration when fire gutted the old office.
"Over the years, China has shown its readiness not only to strengthen bilateral relations with Ghana, but also to invest in key sectors of the economy, including human resource development through education, capacity building infrastructure and trade," she stated.
"China is an important partner of Ghana in the pursuit of economic, cultural and social development," the First Lady said, urging the scholarship beneficiaries to work hard during their stay in China to justify the resources being extended to them.