MINSK, 27 February (BelTA) – Belarusian universities are interested in establishing direct ties with educational institutions of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), First Deputy Education Minister of Belarus Vadim Bogush told BelTA as he commented on the meeting with the delegation of the UAE official and business circles that paid a visit to the Education Ministry of Belarus.

The meeting discussed education opportunities for UAE citizens in Belarus, terms for the implementation of joint education and research projects in environmental protection and water resources, information systems and technologies, renewable energy sources, materials science and engineering, machinery manufacturing, microsystem technology. Vadim Bogush stressed that "the Belarusian side is interested in expanding international cooperation in education and establishment of direct ties between universities."

Undersecretary of the Education Minister of the UAE Marwan Ahmed Al Sawaleh confirmed mutual interest. "We would like to intensify our cooperation. We believe that your country makes the right emphasis on education and science. The UAE runs many programs related to higher education. We plan to use higher education as a basis for the establishment of high achievements in the scientific area. The Emirates are also a center of attraction in the economic sector. We are very much interested in cooperation with the economic and technical universities of Belarus," he said.

Bilateral cooperation in education is developed under the memorandum of understanding the governments of Belarus and the UAE signed to develop cooperation in higher education and research in 2013. Two citizens of the UAE receive education in Belarus this year.

Attending the discussion of the interuniversity cooperation were representatives of universities. Thus, the representatives of Pavel Suhoi State Technical University of Gomel showed interest in establishing contacts with Masdar Institute of Science and Technology. Joint training was suggested in computation and information sciences, electrical energy industry, engineering systems, materials science and engineering, machinery manufacturing and microsystem technology. International Sakharov Environmental University is interested in training personnel for the UAE in environmental protection and water resources, information systems and technology, renewable energy sources. Pushkin State University of Brest shows interest in training staff for the calculations systems and environmental protection.

The Education Ministries of the two countries consider linguistic training of UAE citizens in Belarusian universities as a promising area of cooperation. They also believe as promising to organize training of UAE nationals in the Belarusian universities for the most popular majors, exchange students and postgraduates, establish cooperation in training, retraining and enhancement of qualifications.