Visiting Chinese Vice-President Hu Jintao was awarded the Highest
Distinction Honor Medal by France's Central School of Lyon on
Friday.
The award was presented by Jean Dorey, director of the renowned
French school. Welcoming Hu to visit the school, Dorey expressed
his hope that the cooperation between his school and universities
in China will expand.
Accepting the award, Hu said that exchanges in the area of
education between China and France have a long history, for
example, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, the late Chinese leaders,
had studied in France.
He
said he believed that Sino-French educational exchanges and
cooperation will achieve more fruitful results in the new century
through joint efforts.
The Central School of Lyon, which was set up in 1857 and regarded
as one of the best engineering schools, is one of the four in the
"group of central schools," which was formed in 1990. The other
three are respectively located in Lille, Nante and Paris.
In
1996, the four schools of the group signed a framework agreement on
cooperation with Tsinghua (Qinghua)
University, Shanghai
Communications University, Xi'an Communications University and
South-West Communications
University.
The agreement is called "4+4" program, under which about 65 Chinese
students are currently studying in the four French schools.
(Xinhua News
Agency November 3, 2001)