Isabel da Costa Ferreira, the wife of the prime minister of Timor Leste, has praised the quality of occupational training given at the Ningbo Polytechnic in eastern China, the China Ningbo website reports.

The Ningbo city government website says the prime minister’s wife did so in a letter.

The report says 45 East Timorese recently returned home, having completed last December one-year courses given at the polytechnic, which had been arranged by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

Among the trainees, 21 studied to become mechanics and electricians, and the rest learned various skills for rendering services to tourists.

The report says the courses were the first of their type given in China for foreigners, and the trainees formed the biggest group Timor Leste has ever sent abroad for occupational instruction.