(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-09-07 15:30

XIAMEN - Six Chinese government-sponsored workshops catering to people from Latin America, Caribbean and South Pacific regions have started in Xiamen, a port city in East China's Fujian Province.

A grand ceremony was held on Thursday to mark opening of the six workshops, with attendance of more than 500 people, including 260 trainees from 13 Caribbean nations.

Chen Jian, assistant to the Minister of Commerce, said the workshops was of great significance to improve mutual understanding, advance friendly exchange, and expand pragmatic cooperation between China and Latin American, Caribbean and South Pacific nations.

Lolita Applewhaite, Deputy Secretary-General of Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), said trainees at the six workshops would listen to lectures given by specialists and carry out discussions over subjects ranging from trade, investment, agriculture, tourism, private economy, to journalism.

Each workshop will last for half a month. Apart from Xiamen, trainees will move on to other Chinese cities including Beijing and Xi'an.

China have trained more than 90,000 people with practical skills from developing countries by July this year, of which, 5,425 people were trained this year.