The Chinese telecommunications company Huawei on Tuesday awarded scholarships worth €80,000 to students from two faculties at the University of Osijek.

The scholarships are intended for students from Osijek University’s Faculty of Agri-bio-technology (€60,000) and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology (€20,000).

The university rector Vlado Guberac said that this was “yet another example of good collaboration between Osijek faculties and the enterprise sector, as well as a contribution to the ‘internationalization’ of Osijek University.”

“Over the last four years Osijek University launched five new study programmes in English and a medical programme in German, which are attended by around 200 foreign students in total,” Guberac said.

The Dean of the Faculty of Agri-bio-technology (FAZOS), Krunoslav Zmaic, said that the donation would be used to financially support students enrolled in the Digital Agriculture programme. He added that FAZOS and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Information Technology (FERIT) will use Huawei technology for research projects at the Kopacki Rit Nature Park, where they will install over 200 cameras and other devices to gather information on the impact of climate change on the eco-system and movement of protected animal species.

Chinese ambassador to Croatia, Qi Qianjin, said that with funding schemes like these Chinese companies like Huawei seek to promote “economic development, particularly in the digital world, and good relations between countries.”

Huawei’s regional director for public relations, Marco Xu Xiaobo, said that this company, as one of the global leaders in ICT solutions and telecommunications, attaches great importance to talent as only talented people can create innovative solutions.

“That’s why we award scholarships, to invest in the best and most talented students, so that they can use their skills to acquire knowledge about state-of-the-art information and communication technologies,” he added.