Rector: Cooperation in education will facilitate rapprochement between Brazil, Belarus

The cooperation that we are establishing in education will help bring our countries closer together, Rector of the Brazilian Federal University of Minas Gerais Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida said during a ceremony to sign the memorandum of understanding in Belarusian State Economic University (BSEU), BelTA has learned.

The delegation included the university's Rector Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida and Director of the university's Office of International Affairs Aziz Saliba and also Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Brazil to Belarus Bernard Jorg Leopold de Garcia Klingl. The guests began their tour of the university by attending a class in the Portuguese language. Then the delegation met with the leadership of the Belarusian university to learn more about the educational capacities of the university and sign a memorandum of understanding. The document was signed by the rectors of the two universities.

"We are happy to sign the memorandum, thanks to which we will develop cooperation in various fields. Now we will be able to make exchanges of students and faculty, to conduct joint research and implement all kinds of projects that are interesting to both parties. We see the growing interest of the Belarusian public in learning the Portuguese language and we hope to contribute to meeting this need and making the Portuguese language more popular in Belarus. In turn, we are very interested in learning more about your culture, language, and the achievements of Belarus. I hope that this cooperation in education will help bring our countries closer together," Sandra Regina Goulart Almeida said.

We have already stepped up cooperation in certain areas, Yulia Shavruk, Dean of the Faculty of International Business Communications at BSEU, told the media. "The first and very important thing is the promotion of the Portuguese language. It is about sending our teachers for internship to Brazil and hosting Portuguese language teachers from the University of Minas Gerais. We are also planning the internship of our students next summer. The Brazilian side is ready to provide grants. As the second avenue of cooperation, our guests singled out the Faculty of International Economic Relations and the World Economy major since we are the leading economic university in the country. Here we are planning joint programs in English. The guests also showed interest in the Faculty of Law. These are three areas of our further cooperation," the dean noted.

The Faculty of International Business Communications at BSEU runs the Center for Latin American Studies where scholars from both universities conduct joint projects. The university also plans to bolster its Portuguese language center.

Written by belta.by