An international grassroots administration training program, jointly initiated by China and European Union (EU), has taught about 25,000 China's low ranking officials how to perform in a more competent and professional way.

Since 2001, the international program has been held with the aim to bring modern administrative methods as well as grassroots democratic election concepts to officials.

To support the program, the EU has already provided 10.7 million Euros and the Chinese government has also made huge financial allocation to it, said Xu Qida, an official with the Ministry of Civil Affairs, who is also in charge of the program.

He said grassroots officials from the provinces of Yunnan, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Henan, Gansu, Shandong and Jiangxi have already attended more than 200 program-related training classes.

Chen Hongyu, head of Qinlao Village in southwest China's Yunnan Province, claims herself one of the beneficiaries of the program.

"Through the training courses, I have developed new understanding about administrative transparency, the village fiscal budget and democratic decision-making," said Chen.

The official said she will apply what she has learned from the program into her daily work for the development of the village.

Currently, China has more than 800 million rural residents in nearly 900,000 countryside villages.

Source: Xinhua