Jeevan Premasara General Manager HR- HIPG, Ma Lijuan- Chinese Teacher, Yi Yingz iChinese Teacher, Yongzhuang Li- General Manager PSP- HIPG, Tiler Nadugala- Director General and Past President HDCC, Sudammika Wickramanayake Manager Operations HDCC, Ajith Liyanage Manager Partnership and Tourism
The Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce (HDCC) has joined hands with the Colombo University China Language Centre and the Hambantota International Port to provide Chinese language lessons to Hambantota district residents.
The Chamber began the language learning programme four years ago, with the goal of educating the Hambantota business community, especially the tourism sector, on Chinese language and culture.
They believe that locals learning Chinese, would ensure ease of doing business, considering the number of China based projects in the district.
When the Training Centre faced closure, they reached out to Hambantota International Port Group (HIPG) for help. HDCC Operations Manager, Sudhammika Wickremanayake, said that HIPG was happy to come on board to revive the programme, because it was in line with their corporate social responsibility vision to empower the community.
HIPG provides the physical needs such as accommodation, food and transport, while Colombo University has supplied them with two Chinese teachers Yi Yingzi and Ma Lijuan who joined the programme in 2018. “With HIPG coming on board and support from the Colombo University China Language Center in sourcing teachers, the second phase of our Chinese language teaching project was a great success.”
The Hambantota business community and students from the area had been keen to participate in lessons. The Operations Manager says “During the first phase we had around 50 students in each class and conducted two courses for 100 students. We had 12 students per class for office staff, ten each in classes for children and 25 students in classes conducted for tourist vehicle drivers.
The one year study programme has benefited over 150 participants so far and has been extended to HIPG employees as well. The Chamber together with the Colombo University China Language Center, conducts classes structured for the Hambantota district community’s public sector officials, school kids, tourism sector and the business community. Wickremanayake says their teachers and students are passionate about their lessons. The HDCC suffered a setback when the pandemic hit, “although we began online lessons on WeChat during the lockdown, it has not been very successful where school kids are concerned, since parents are reluctant to send their children for lessons. Classes for tourist drivers are also at a standstill because tourism has not commenced.”
She says online lessons are continuing successfully on WeChat for the business community, and they hope to become fully operational with lessons for all communities soon. Jeevan Premasara, General Manager HR of HIPG says they will support the chamber to keep the Chinese classes alive as they have been of great benefit not only to the community but also their staff, who are learning to communicate more effectively in Chinese.
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