Authorities in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the country's largest Hui community, issued a plan Tuesday to train Arabic language professionals beginning this year and running until 2020.

The regional government will encourage Arabic language studies by using various methods, including holding Chinese to Arabic translation training courses, according to the talent development plan issued prior to the China-Arab Economic and Trade Forum to be held in Ningxia in September.

In Ningxia, Muslims accounted for more than one-third of its 6.18 million people. It had been a tradition for local Muslims to send their children to mosques to learn the Koran in Arabic, according to a spokesman with the regional employment service bureau.

In recent years, an increasing number of Muslims in Ningxia began to learn Arabic to become translators. After graduation, they have found jobs in China's developed coastal regions and, even in the Middle East, said the spokesman.

The State Council has just released a guideline to further develop the country's west regions, which encouraged Ningxia to establish economic, educational, technical and cultural exchanges with Arab countries.

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2010)