Over 600 Chilean officials trained in China: official

Over 600 Chilean government officials were trained in China between 1998 and 2015, a Chilean official said Tuesday.

"Such cooperation greatly helps the transfer of knowledge and capacity, which we seek as part of our South-South cooperation," Ricardo Herrera, head of the Chilean International Cooperation Agency, told a gathering of Chilean government officials who have studied in China at the Chinese Embassy in Santiago.

Over the past 17 years, the Scholarship Program for Chileans in China has helped foster exchanges in various areas, he said.

Heidi Inostroza, a Chilean scholar who has just finished a seminar on tourism development in China, said the experience in China will help her design a sustainable ethno-tourism project in the Chilean district of Tirua Sur.

"In China, I learned the sustainable tourism development policies put in place by the government. I was also able to experience the ethno-tourism policies put in place in communities belonging to the Miao ethnicity, where I learned about their development, their world view, their art and their use of medicinal herbs. It was a rich and emotional chance to grow," she said.

Marine biologist Sergio Palma took part in a seminar in China tackling the integral management of coastal zones in Latin America and the Caribbean.

"This experience has helped me acquire technical knowledge which will help to protect Chile's own coastal areas," he said. Endi