Gujaratis flocking to learn Chinese after sensing business opportunities in China

Ahmedabad: With Gujarat hoping to boost trade ties with China after President Xi Jinping’s recent visit, more are more Gujaratis are thronging institutes here imparting training in various foreign languages especially to learn Chinese with a view to explore business opportunities in the neighbouring country. [caption id=“attachment_1724057” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Xi and Modi in Ahmedabad. AP[/caption] Several pacts were inked between the two countries when President Xi visited Gujarat during his three-day India tour. This included an agreement of sister city pact between Guangzhou in China and Gujarat’s mega city Ahmedabad besides a deal on setting up of an industrial park in the state. The people of Gujarat did not wait for such events to happen and had already started sensing business opportunities in the land of Mao Zedong earlier. But according to city-based teachers and students of Chinese language, the trend to learn Chinese recently got a big push after Xi’s visit. “There is an increasing trend amongst Gujaratis to learn Chinese languages. The trend emerged rapidly, during the last two years after China and Gujarat began new business relations due to initiatives taken by state’s former Chief Minister and present Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” a city-based teacher of Chinese languages, Lavanya Trivedi said. Trivedi claims that business personnel, medical students and interior designers are front runners to learn Chinese so that they can establish themselves in the People’s Republic of China. “There are more than 60 students, who are learning the Chinese language Mandarin, in various city-based institutes. As per the current trend, businessmen, medicos and interior designers dominate the numbers,” Trivedi said. She said that Chinese interior designers are quite in demand in Gujarat which could be the reason why the interior designers from the state often deal with China. PTI