From the People's Daily app. 

This is Story in the Story.

In late 2013, China unveiled the Belt and Road Initiative, a project by the Chinese government to boost connectivity and cooperation between Asia, Europe and Africa. Since its launch, Belt and Road has driven more and more interactions between Chinese government and companies with countries along the belt. According to China’s Ministry of Education, the number of students from Belt and Road countries saw an increase by over 10% in 2017. 

Some Chinese institutions have started to offer training sessions for local entrepreneurs in countries along the belt, to equip them with the knowledge to promote e-commerce in Belt and Road countries. The entrepreneurs were eager to learn from the lecturers even if they could only communicate through interpreters.

Today’s Story in the Story explores the increased interactions under the Belt and Road Initiative from a Global Times article:

Yang Yu, a Chinese language instructor from Northwest University of Shanxi Province, is about to finish her most recent assignment at a Chinese oil company in Kyrgyzstan before heading back to China in May.

The teacher, who works at the university's School of International Cultural Exchange, left for the central-Asian country in December 2017 and currently teaches about 100 Kyrgyz students, all employees of Zhongda China Petrol Company.

Besides Yang, another two teachers from China are also preparing to teach their knowledge of the chemical industry at the oil company. The training project, jointly initiated by Northwest University and Zhongda China Petrol Company in 2014, aims to train 1,000 talents in Kyrgyzstan to help the company to "step out."

In the past, Chinese companies have encountered difficulties finding senior managers capable of running overseas projects.

Those hired were usually loyal but they could not grasp the foreign culture, rules and language, especially knowledge about international finance and tax administration, reported the Yangzi River Daily.

"When we are sitting behind the negotiating table, we feel we lack support, because we lack international senior executives," he said, emphasizing the necessity to foster international talents.

Now the situation is changing. A Tajikistan-based Chinese mining company recently announced its plans to cultivate 100 locals from the country at a university in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

(Produced by Nancy Yan Xu, Ziyi Zeng and Raymond Mendoza. Music by: bensound.com)