China allocates a quota of 100 state scholarships to students from Turkmenistan each year. This was announced by Li Guoliang, Secretary of the Education Work Committee of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) Party Committee, according to the news website Turkmenportal, citing the newspaper ‘Neutral Turkmenistan’.

According to him, the scholarships are aimed at training qualified personnel and developing educational ties between Turkmenistan and the XUAR.

The visit by the Chinese delegation to Turkmenistan is seen as one of the steps towards implementing the agreements reached at the second ‘Central Asia–China’ summit.

The parties are paying particular attention to scientific cooperation: the Chinese side is offering Turkmen scientists joint research projects in the fields of energy, arid agriculture and medicine, involving leading Chinese universities and the Xinjiang Institute of Advanced Studies.