Beijing seeks cross-border training

Beijing has proposed exchanging students and professors between academies in the mainland and Hong Kong to achieve higher standards of seafarer training.

The Minister of Communications, Huang Zhengdong, told a Hong Kong delegation headed by Hong Kong Shipowners' Association chairman George Chao Sze-kwong that exchanges would benefit seafarers' employers and the mainland's shipping industry besides fully utilising both mainland and SAR facilities.

Such activities would enable shipowners' operating vessels registered in Hong Kong to recruit seafarers from the mainland, he said.

The SAR delegation met premier Li Peng and the presidents of Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo and Shanghai universities.