KARACHI: Children of local villagers in Thar Block-1 will be taught the Chinese language by qualified teachers under a long-term programme initiated by Sino Sindh Resources Private Limited, a local subsidiary of Shanghai Electric.
The project which SSRL is carrying out in collaboration with the Confucius Institute, University of Karachi was inaugurated in Thar Block 1 on Wednesday.
“We have initiated this project to help local kids learn the Chinese language. This skill will be an added tool for them once they enter professional life,” commented Li Jigen, CEO of SSRL.
“Dedicated Chinese teachers from Confucius Institute have been employed to impart Chinese language to local kids. These classes will help the local residents of Thar in overcoming the language barrier and working abreast of Chinese investors in the area,” he said.
A total of 30 boys and 30 girls from local schools of Thar will be attending these classes. The classes will be held in three different schools. On weekends the teachers will be teaching the Chinese language to local employees of SSRL.
The Chinese classes project got underway after due permission from concerned authorities.
ABOUT SHANGHAI ELECTRIC
Shanghai Electric is working on a Coal-electricity integration project in Block 1 of Thar Coalfield, which is a “China-Pakistan Economic Corridor” priority implementation project. It includes construction and operation of open-pit coal mine with an annual output of 7.8 million tons and 2X660MW supercritical lignite power station.
Thar Coalfield is No. 1 in Asia and No. 7 in the world. The Block 1 open-pit coal field covers an area of 150 sq-km, and the estimated total lignite resource reserve is about 2.6 billion tons. Block 1 is the largest open-pit coal mine under construction in Pakistan.
