A Sino-Swiss management training program began three courses in southwestern Sichuan Province Thursday.

The courses cover the development of ecological tourism in Sichuan, the water environment management in Sichuan's Minjiang and Tuojiang Rivers and building an ecological defense on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, said Yao Xue, head of the Chinese project group.

"We hope we can have more professional staff on ecological tourism development research and make technical standard for ecological tourism construction, which are both desperately needed in this province witnessing a fast development in tourism," said Yao at the opening ceremony for the courses.

Nearly 600 senior Chinese officials have attended the management training program since it was launched in 1993. Twenty-six trainees met their tutors Thursday.

(Xinhua News Agency March 18, 2005)