Across China: More South Asian youths seek opportunities in China

Yengkhom Ronica obtained her doctorate from Yunnan University last summer. After almost a decade of study in the city of Kunming, the capital of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, she decided this was where she wanted to live and work.
Hailing from India, she is a teacher at the India-China Yoga College in Yunnan Minzu University, where she teaches an overview of Indian culture and the basics of yoga philosophy.
In 2012, Yengkhom first came to Kunming through an exchange program. Two years later, after receiving a Chinese government postgraduate scholarship, she moved to Kunming again to pursue her master’s and doctoral degrees at Yunnan University.
Driven by her love of Chinese culture and sharing Indian culture, she joined Yunnan Minzu University after graduation.
“I am a beneficiary of cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and India, and I am very happy to be a witness and promoter of China-India cultural and people-to-people exchanges,” she said.
Yengkhom added that the university has set up a China-India cultural and people-to-people exchange center to boost exchanges between the two countries.
Bordering Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, Yunnan is China’s gateway to South and Southeast Asia.
Forty-six universities in the province have established cooperative relations with educational institutions in 62 countries and regions, as well as 11 international talent training bases.
The number of international students in Yunnan once exceeded 40,000, many hailing from South and Southeast Asian countries. Many graduates look for employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in China.
Zeeshan Shafiq, 34, is a former electrical engineer from Pakistan. He came to Yunnan in 2019 to study for a doctorate in transportation engineering at Kunming University of Science and Technology.
It was his childhood dream to visit China. After graduating with a master’s degree, he applied to study at the Kunming University of Science and Technology and was enrolled in the university with a scholarship. After graduation, he plans to stay and work in China and bring his family, too.
China and South Asian countries account for one-fifth of the global economy.
Earlier this week, the seventh China-South Asia Expo kicked off. When the first expo was held in 2013, the trade volume between China and South Asian countries amounted to less than 100 billion U.S. dollars, but the figure reached 197.4 billion U.S. dollars last year, with an average annual growth rate of 8.3 percent.