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China must stress on foreign languages- WEF
February 13, 2013, 10:10 am

[Xinhua]

“Beijing must now broaden the range of basic education by stressing foreign languages”. [Xinhua]

China must lay emphasis on foreign languages in its education structure, says a top economist at the World Economic Forum.

Speaking at a two-day government summit in Dubai, Jennifer Blanke, chief economist of the World Economic Forum (WEF), said that China’s economy would become one of the world’s most competitive.

Blanke told Chinese news agency Xinhua that China has put great emphasis on mathematics and science education at grammar schools in the past.

In order to lift China to the next phase of growth, “which its leadership said shall be sustainable, Beijing must now broaden the range of basic education by stressing foreign languages, economics and social science in early learning,” said Blanke.

The WEF’s chief economist added that China was still in its early stages to transfer the economic achievements of its prosperous East coast.

Blanke said, the Chinese government has committed itself to invest in the infrastructure and economic development of the country’s rural areas in Central China and in the west.

“We think the world’s second largest economy will see in the next two decades a tremendous boom of its central and western provinces,” she said.

In the WEF’s ranking for global competitiveness which measures a country’s level for delivering basic requirements, economic efficiency and innovation, China currently stands at number 29.

“We are confident that China will move to the world’s top 10, if it broadens the spectrum of basic educational subjects and because it will spread the East coast’s success to the rest of the country,” said Blanke.

Source: Agencies