The Asian Education Forum is scheduled to be held in Beijing in August this year.  

The forum was launched by former heads of some Asian countries in December 2003 and then confirmed through discussion by 95 representatives from 18 countries and regions.

High-ranking educational department officials in charge of international exchanges in Asian countries will be invited to the forum to discuss such matters as scholarship and mutual recognition of records of formal schooling and academic degrees, said Cao Guoxing, director of the International Cooperation Department under China's Ministry of Education.

China proposed to set up the Asian Scholarship and decided to be the first to offer 20 full scholarships, Cao said.

China has sent 700,000 students to study in more than 100 countries. In recent years, 120,000 students a year left China for further study abroad. Meanwhile, some 300 universities in various parts of China enrolled 400,000 students from 170 countries.

(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2004)