August 06, 2009 10:50:04 AM
A city in southwest China has set its civil servants the tongue-twisting task of learning five foreign languages in order to boost ties with its Southeast Asian neighbours.
A Communist Party chief in Kunming, capital of Yunnan province which borders Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, announced the tough new requirement, the state Xinhua news agency said.
"All civil servants under the age of 50 in Kunming should be able to master 300 English sentences, 100 Vietnamese sentences, 100 Burmese sentences, 100 Lao sentences and 100 Thai sentences before the end of 2010," Qiu He was quoted as saying.
He said improving the language skills of civil servants would help boost the province's business ties with neighbouring countries under a free trade agreement between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
Qiu also hopes to attract investment to Kunming, which was ranked 21 out of 23 provincial capitals in terms of gross domestic product in 2007, Xinhua said.
The agency said some people had expressed cynicism about Qiu's ambitious goal but others gave their whole-hearted approval.
"Many civil servants have stable jobs and satisfactory salaries. It's better for them to study than waste time in eating and drinking. The language programme may work to put them under some pressure," Zhang Wei, who works at a communications company, was quoted as saying.
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