A tablet of a Confucius Institute was awarded to Egypt's Suez Canal University Wednesday in the northeastern Egyptian governorate of Ismailia.

Farouk Abdelkader, president of Suez Canal University, told Xinhua there are a lot of cooperation between the Egyptian and Chinese universities, especially the Suez Canal University, and the number of Egyptian students who would like to learn Chinese is increasing.

He said his university will open Chinese department and it will also send five professors to China in June to probe for more cooperation in fields of health and medicine, fishery, farm and engineering.

He added that Chinese students will also come to Egypt to learn Arabic language and culture.

The agreement on jointly establishing a Confucius Institute was signed by China's Huabei Electric Power University and Suez Canal University in March this year.

This was the second agreement of this kind in Egypt while the first one was signed between the Cairo University and Peking University.

The president hailed opening a Confucius Institute in his university as a good idea, which would promote the learning of Chinese in Egypt as more and more Chinese investments are coming to the country.

Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Wu Sike echoed with Abdelkader, saying that by opening a Confucius Institute, bilateral cultural exchange would be enhanced.

At present, there are four Egyptian universities which have opened Chinese departments with about 1,000 students.

In an effort to promote the study of the Chinese language and culture abroad, the Chinese government has launched 155 Confucius Institutes around the world.

Source: Xinhua